Eye safe monolithic compact laser

摘要

The present invention has applications in which the human eye may be exposed to lasers used in a variety of devices for pointing, imaging, industrial cutting and drilling, and for medical procedures. In one aspect of the invention, laser energy is transformed into light having a wavelength that is eye-safe. In a specific embodiment, an eye-safe laser includes a laser for coupling to a source of pump energy to generate laser energy and a Raman shifting crystal for transforming the laser energy into eye-safe light. In one such embodiment, the laser energy has a wavelength of about 1.3 microns and the eye-safe light has a wavelength of about 1.5 microns.