阅读说明：本技术 一种多功能光开关及其控制方法 (Multifunctional optical switch and control method thereof ) 是由 邵华江 李思佳 于 2019-10-24 设计创作，主要内容包括：本发明公开了一种多功能光开关及其控制方法,包括输入光纤,耦合准直镜,离轴抛物镜,输出光纤,本发基于耦合准直镜与离轴抛物镜消像差光学特性,通过沿柱面中心轴旋转及移动离轴抛物镜,可实现中心轴与柱面中心轴同轴,面与离轴抛物镜焦点重合的圆柱面上任意位置输出光纤光束耦合,极大限度利用光开关输出耦合空间资源的同时,降低光学耦合镜片数量及结构设计成本,尤其适用于多种激光加工应用对光纤输出光束要求不同的单台光纤激光器多选项输出场合。(The invention discloses a multifunctional optical switch and a control method thereof, wherein the multifunctional optical switch comprises an input optical fiber, a coupling collimating lens, an off-axis parabolic mirror and an output optical fiber, the multifunctional optical switch is based on the aberration-eliminating optical characteristic of the coupling collimating lens and the off-axis parabolic mirror, can realize the output optical fiber beam coupling of any position on a cylindrical surface, the central axis of which is coaxial with the central axis of a cylindrical surface and the surface of which is coincident with the focus of the off-axis parabolic mirror, greatly utilizes the optical switch to output coupling space resources, simultaneously reduces the number of optical coupling lenses and the structural design cost, and is particularly suitable for multi-option output occasions of a single optical fiber laser with different requirements on the optical fiber output beam in various laser processing applications.)

1. A multifunctional optical switch comprising an input fiber (1), a coupling collimator (2), an off-axis parabolic mirror (3), and an output fiber (4) (1-1, 1-2 … … 1-m, 2-1, 2-2 … … 2-m, … …, n-1, n-2 … … n-m), characterized in that: the multifunctional optical switch system is provided with a coupling collimating mirror, one end of the coupling collimating mirror is provided with an input optical fiber, the other end of the coupling collimating mirror is provided with an off-axis parabolic mirror, and the outer side of the coupling collimating mirror is provided with an output optical fiber (1-1, 1-2 … … 1-m, 2-1, 2-2 … … 2-m, … …, n-1, n-2 … … n-m).

2. A multi-functional optical switch according to claim 1, characterized in that: the coupling collimating lens is an aberration eliminating aspheric lens, and the surface type comprises a biconvex type and a plano-convex type.

3. A multi-functional optical switch according to claim 1, characterized in that: the off-axis parabolic mirror is a cylindrical inclined surface metal reflector, the light beam deflection angle is 90 degrees, common materials comprise copper and aluminum alloy, and a cooling water channel is arranged.

4. A multi-functional optical switch according to claim 1, characterized in that: the input optical fiber (1) is a single-core circular conventional optical fiber, the output optical fiber (1-1, 1-2 … … 1-m, 2-1, 2-2 … … 2-m, … …, n-1, n-2 … … n-m) comprises a single-core, coaxial multi-core and paraxial multi-core optical fibers, and the cross section of a single fiber core covers a circle, an ellipse, a regular polygon and a regular hollow shape,

the central axis of the optical fiber interface of the input optical fiber (1), the optical axis of the coupling collimating mirror (2) and the cylindrical central axis of the off-axis parabolic mirror (3) are superposed;

the equivalent light-emitting point of the input optical fiber (1) is coincided with the front focus of the coupling collimating mirror (2);

the equivalent incident light point of the output optical fiber (1-1, 1-2 … … 1-m, 2-1, 2-2 … … 2-m, … …, n-1, n-2 … … n-m) is coincided with a cylindrical surface formed by rotating and moving the focusing focus of the off-axis parabolic mirror (3) by the central axis of the cylindrical surface, and the central axis of the optical fiber interface of the output optical fiber (1-1, 1-2 … … 1-m, 2-1, 2-2 … … 2-m, … …, n-1, n-2 … … n-m) is vertical to the cylindrical surface.

5. A multi-functional optical switch according to claim 1, characterized in that: the off-axis parabolic mirror (3) can respectively move along the central axis of the cylinder and rotate around the central axis of the cylinder by a rotation angle of 0-300 degrees.

6. A multi-functional optical switch according to claim 1, characterized in that: the number m and n of the output optical fibers (4) (1-1, 1-2 … … 1-m, 2-1, 2-2 … … 2-m, … …, n-1 and n-2 … … n-m) meet the condition that m is more than or equal to 1, and n is more than or equal to 1.

7. A multi-function optical switch as claimed in claim 1, wherein the control method comprises the steps of:

A. the input optical fiber 1 outputs divergent laser beams to be incident on the coupling collimating mirror 2 to obtain parallel collimated light beams, and the collimated light beams are focused by the off-axis parabolic mirror 3 to form focused light beams;

B. when the off-axis parabolic mirror 3 moves along the central axis of the cylinder and rotates around the central axis of the cylinder to the focus central line to be coincident with the central axis of the optical fiber interface of one of the output optical fibers 1-1, 1-2 … … 1-m, 2-1, 2-2 … … 2-m, … …, n-1, n-2 … … n-m, the focus light beam formed by the focusing of the off-axis parabolic mirror 3 can be coupled into the corresponding optical fiber;

C. when a customer needs to switch a light beam to another optical fiber for output to meet a corresponding processing application, the off-axis parabolic mirror 3 is also moved along the central axis of the cylinder and rotated around the central axis of the cylinder, so that the focusing center line of the off-axis parabolic mirror 3 is coincident with the central axis of the optical fiber interface of another optical fiber in the output optical fibers 1-1, 1-2 … … 1-m, 2-1, 2-2 … … 2-m, … …, n-1, n-2 … … n-m, so as to complete coupling.

Technical Field

The invention relates to the technical field of fiber lasers, in particular to a multifunctional optical switch and a control method thereof.

Background

The laser processing technology covers various laser processing technologies such as laser cutting, welding, quenching, punching, micro-processing and the like, and utilizes the basic characteristic of interaction between laser and substances. The laser beam has the advantages of non-contact with the processing material, high processing speed, excellent quality and the like, so that the laser processing technology is a high and new technology without replacement.

The fiber laser has the advantages of high electro-optic conversion efficiency, good fiber flexibility, high coupling efficiency, good beam quality and the like, and the appearance of high-power lasers, so that the market share is increasingly prominent, the kilowatt level of the fiber coupling output laser is quite popular at present, the kilowatt level laser is gradually released to the market, and various processing technologies of the fiber laser are more generalized.

In the optical fiber laser cutting, the conventional optical fiber is a single-core round optical fiber, the core diameter of the optical fiber is 50um or 100um in common specifications, and along with the development of the cutting process and the improvement of the quality requirement of a cut section of a plate, the coaxial double-core and coaxial three-core optical fiber laser also shows the market, so that light emitting spots such as solid, annular and multi-annular can be realized, and the aim of better improving the quality of the perforation and the end face of the thin, medium and thick plates is achieved.

In the optical fiber laser welding, the core diameter of a conventional optical fiber is different from 50um to 1000um, and for the laser welding application of different materials with different thicknesses and different slit widths, in order to better obtain the laser welding quality, the TRUMPF, the Coherent and the like adopt coaxial double-core optical fibers to realize different energy ratios of an inner core and an outer core so as to reduce the welding spatter phenomenon; the IPG adopts a paraxial double-core optical fiber to realize focusing double focuses so as to improve the welding quality of high-reflection materials and the like.

In the laser cladding or quenching of optical fibers, large-size flat-top light is generally used for processing, and besides the shaping of an optical lens is adopted from a laser processing head, a hollow polygonal optical fiber waveguide is adopted by an optical fiber manufacturer for shaping and transmitting light beams, so that the processing application requirements are finally met.

It is often desirable or even required for customers that the laser be compatible with different laser machining applications. The existing fiber laser usually outputs single fiber, obviously does not meet the customer requirements, even if the fiber laser selectively outputs more than two fibers, the specification of the fiber laser is single, and an optical switch adopts more optical lenses, has larger volume, complex design and quite expensive price, so that the same fiber laser can output various fibers with different specifications to meet the requirements, and simultaneously, the cost saving and the space occupation are a great direction for the research and attack of a laser supplier.

Based on the points, the invention provides a multifunctional optical switch system, based on the optical characteristics of aberration elimination of a coupling collimating lens and an off-axis parabolic mirror, by rotating and moving the off-axis parabolic mirror along the central axis of a cylindrical surface, the coupling of optical fiber beams output from any position on the cylindrical surface with the central axis coaxial with the central axis of the cylindrical surface and the surface coincident with the focus of the off-axis parabolic mirror can be realized, the number of optical coupling lenses and the structural design cost are reduced while coupling space resources are output by an optical switch to the maximum extent, and the multifunctional optical switch system is particularly suitable for multi-option output occasions of single optical fiber lasers with different requirements on the optical fiber output beams.

Disclosure of Invention

The present invention is directed to a multifunctional optical switch and a control method thereof, so as to solve the problems of the background art.

In order to achieve the purpose, the invention provides the following technical scheme: a multifunctional optical switch comprises an input optical fiber, a coupling collimator, an off-axis parabolic mirror and an output optical fiber (1-1, 1-2 … … 1-m, 2-1, 2-2 … … 2-m, … …, n-1, n-2 … … n-m), wherein the coupling collimator is arranged on the multifunctional optical switch system, the input optical fiber is arranged at one end of the coupling collimator, the off-axis parabolic mirror is arranged at the other end of the coupling collimator, and the output optical fiber (1-1, 1-2 … … 1-m, 2-1, 2-2 … … 2-m, … …, n-1, n-2 … … n-m) is arranged on the outer side of the coupling collimator.

Preferably, the coupling collimating mirror is an aberration-eliminating aspheric mirror, and the surface type includes a biconvex type and a plano-convex type.

Preferably, the off-axis parabolic mirror is a cylindrical inclined-plane metal reflector, the light beam deflection angle is 90 degrees, common materials comprise copper and aluminum alloy, and a cooling water channel is arranged.

Preferably, the input optical fiber is a single-core circular conventional optical fiber, the output optical fiber (1-1, 1-2 … … 1-m, 2-1, 2-2 … … 2-m, … …, n-1, n-2 … … n-m) comprises a single-core, coaxial multi-core, paraxial multi-core optical fiber, a single-core cross-sectional shape covers a circle, an ellipse, a regular polygon and a regular hollow shape,

the optical fiber interface central axis of the input optical fiber, the optical axis of the coupling collimating mirror (2) and the cylindrical central axis of the off-axis parabolic mirror (3) are superposed;

the equivalent light-emitting point of the input optical fiber is superposed with the front focus of the coupling collimating mirror (2);

the equivalent incident light point of the output optical fiber (1-1, 1-2 … … 1-m, 2-1, 2-2 … … 2-m, … …, n-1, n-2 … … n-m) is coincided with a cylindrical surface formed by rotating and moving the focusing focus of the off-axis parabolic mirror (3) by the central axis of the cylindrical surface, and the central axis of the optical fiber interface of the output optical fiber (1-1, 1-2 … … 1-m, 2-1, 2-2 … … 2-m, … …, n-1, n-2 … … n-m) is vertical to the cylindrical surface.

Preferably, the off-axis parabolic mirror (3) can move along the central cylinder axis and rotate around the central cylinder axis respectively, and the rotation angle is 0-300 degrees.

Preferably, the number m and n of the output optical fibers (1-1, 1-2 … … 1-m, 2-1, 2-2 … … 2-m, … …, n-1 and n-2 … … n-m) satisfy that m is larger than or equal to 1, and n is larger than or equal to 1.

Preferably, the control method of the multifunctional optical switch system comprises the following steps:

A. the input optical fiber 1 outputs divergent laser beams to be incident on the coupling collimating mirror 2 to obtain parallel collimated light beams, and the collimated light beams are focused by the off-axis parabolic mirror 3 to form focused light beams;

B. when the off-axis parabolic mirror 3 moves along the central axis of the cylinder and rotates around the central axis of the cylinder to the focus central line to be coincident with the central axis of the optical fiber interface of one of the output optical fibers 1-1, 1-2 … … 1-m, 2-1, 2-2 … … 2-m, … …, n-1, n-2 … … n-m, the focus light beam formed by the focusing of the off-axis parabolic mirror 3 can be coupled into the corresponding optical fiber;

C. when a customer needs to switch a light beam to another optical fiber for output to meet a corresponding processing application, the off-axis parabolic mirror 3 is also moved along the central axis of the cylinder and rotated around the central axis of the cylinder, so that the focusing center line of the off-axis parabolic mirror 3 is coincident with the central axis of the optical fiber interface of another optical fiber in the output optical fibers 1-1, 1-2 … … 1-m, 2-1, 2-2 … … 2-m, … …, n-1, n-2 … … n-m, so as to complete coupling.

Compared with the prior art, the invention has the beneficial effects that:

(1) the optical fiber coupling device is novel in structural design, based on the optical characteristics of aberration elimination of the coupling collimating lens and the off-axis parabolic mirror, the optical fiber beam coupling at any position on a cylindrical surface with the central axis coaxial with the central axis of the cylindrical surface and the surface coincident with the focus of the off-axis parabolic mirror can be realized by rotating and moving the off-axis parabolic mirror along the central axis of the cylindrical surface, the number of optical coupling lenses and the structural design cost are reduced while coupling space resources are output by utilizing an optical switch to the maximum extent, and the optical fiber coupling device is particularly suitable for multi-option output occasions of a single optical fiber laser with different requirements on;

(2) according to the optical switch system provided by the invention, the off-axis parabolic mirror can respectively move along the cylindrical central axis and rotate around the cylindrical central axis, 2 dimensions are saved for the adjusting mode of each output optical fiber interface, and the mechanical design difficulty is greatly reduced; in the coaxial multi-core and paraxial multi-core optical fibers, the adjustment on energy distribution and power distribution can be realized, an additional adjustment module is not needed, and the cost is saved to a certain extent; (3) the optical switch system provided by the invention has the advantages that the number of lenses is small, the energy loss is small, the off-axis parabolic mirror is provided with the water cooling channel, the use stability of the optical switch is favorably improved, and the generation of the thermal lens effect is inhibited to a certain extent.

Drawings

Fig. 1 is a schematic structural diagram of a multifunctional optical switch system according to the present invention.

In the figure: 1. an input optical fiber; 2. a coupling collimating mirror; 3. an off-axis parabolic mirror; 4. output fibers (1-1, 1-2 … … 1-m, 2-1, 2-2 … … 2-m, … …, n-1, n-2 … … n-m).

Detailed Description

The technical solutions in the embodiments of the present invention will be clearly and completely described below with reference to the drawings in the embodiments of the present invention, and it is obvious that the described embodiments are only a part of the embodiments of the present invention, and not all of the embodiments. All other embodiments, which can be derived by a person skilled in the art from the embodiments given herein without making any creative effort, shall fall within the protection scope of the present invention.

Referring to fig. 1, the present invention provides a technical solution: a multifunctional optical switch comprises an input optical fiber 1, a coupling collimator lens 2, an off-axis parabolic mirror 3 and an output optical fiber 4(1-1, 1-2 … … 1-m, 2-1, 2-2 … … 2-m, … …, n-1, n-2 … … n-m), and is characterized in that: the multifunctional optical switch system is provided with a coupling collimating mirror, one end of the coupling collimating mirror is provided with an input optical fiber, the other end of the coupling collimating mirror is provided with an off-axis parabolic mirror, and the outer side of the coupling collimating mirror is provided with an output optical fiber (1-1, 1-2 … … 1-m, 2-1, 2-2 … … 2-m, … …, n-1, n-2 … … n-m).

The coupling collimating mirror is an aberration eliminating aspheric mirror, and the surface type comprises a biconvex type and a plano-convex type.

The off-axis parabolic mirror is a cylindrical inclined surface metal reflector, the light beam deflection angle is 90 degrees, common materials comprise copper and aluminum alloy, and a cooling water channel is arranged.

The input optical fiber 1 is a single-core circular conventional optical fiber, the output optical fiber (1-1, 1-2 … … 1-m, 2-1, 2-2 … … 2-m, … …, n-1, n-2 … … n-m) comprises a single-core, coaxial multi-core and paraxial multi-core optical fiber, the cross section of the single-core covers a circle, an ellipse, a regular polygon and a regular hollow shape,

the central axis of the optical fiber interface of the input optical fiber 1, the optical axis of the coupling collimating mirror 2 and the cylindrical central axis of the off-axis parabolic mirror 3 are superposed;

the equivalent light-emitting point of the input optical fiber 1 is coincided with the front focus of the coupling collimating mirror 2;

the equivalent incident light point of the output optical fiber (1-1, 1-2 … … 1-m, 2-1, 2-2 … … 2-m, … …, n-1, n-2 … … n-m) is coincided with a cylindrical surface formed by rotating and moving the focusing focus of the off-axis parabolic mirror (3) by the central axis of the cylindrical surface, and the central axis of the optical fiber interface of the output optical fiber (1-1, 1-2 … … 1-m, 2-1, 2-2 … … 2-m, … …, n-1, n-2 … … n-m) is vertical to the cylindrical surface.

The off-axis parabolic mirror 3 can respectively move along the central axis of the cylinder and rotate around the central axis of the cylinder by 0-300 degrees.

The number m and n of the output optical fibers (1-1, 1-2 … … 1-m, 2-1, 2-2 … … 2-m, … …, n-1 and n-2 … … n-m) meet the condition that m is more than or equal to 1 and n is more than or equal to 1.

The working principle is as follows: the input optical fiber 1 outputs divergent laser beams to be incident on the coupling collimating mirror 2 to obtain parallel collimated beams, and the collimated beams are focused by the off-axis parabolic mirror 3 to form focused beams.

When the off-axis parabolic mirror 3 moves along the central axis of the cylinder and rotates around the central axis of the cylinder to the focus central line to be coincident with the central axis of the optical fiber interface of one of the output optical fibers 1-1, 1-2 … … 1-m, 2-1, 2-2 … … 2-m, … …, n-1 and n-2 … … n-m, the focus light beam formed by the focusing of the off-axis parabolic mirror 3 can be coupled into the corresponding optical fiber.

When a customer needs to switch a light beam to another optical fiber for output to meet a corresponding processing application, the off-axis parabolic mirror 3 is also moved along the central axis of the cylinder and rotated around the central axis of the cylinder, so that the focusing center line of the off-axis parabolic mirror 3 coincides with the central axis of the optical fiber interface of another optical fiber of the output optical fibers 1-1, 1-2 … … 1-m, 2-1, 2-2 … … 2-m, … …, n-1 and n-2 … … n-m to complete coupling.

The optical fiber coupling device is novel in structural design, based on the optical characteristics of aberration elimination of the coupling collimating lens and the off-axis parabolic mirror, the optical fiber beam coupling at any position on the cylindrical surface with the central axis coaxial with the central axis of the cylindrical surface and the surface coincident with the focus of the off-axis parabolic mirror can be realized by rotating and moving the off-axis parabolic mirror along the central axis of the cylindrical surface, the number of optical coupling lenses and the structural design cost are reduced while coupling space resources are output by utilizing an optical switch to the maximum extent, and the optical fiber coupling device is particularly suitable for multi-option output occasions of a single optical fiber laser with different requirements on.

A multifunctional optical switch, the control method comprises the following steps:

A. the input optical fiber 1 outputs divergent laser beams to be incident on the coupling collimating mirror 2 to obtain parallel collimated light beams, and the collimated light beams are focused by the off-axis parabolic mirror 3 to form focused light beams;

B. when the off-axis parabolic mirror 3 moves along the central axis of the cylinder and rotates around the central axis of the cylinder to the focus central line to be coincident with the central axis of the optical fiber interface of one of the output optical fibers 1-1, 1-2 … … 1-m, 2-1, 2-2 … … 2-m, … …, n-1, n-2 … … n-m, the focus light beam formed by the focusing of the off-axis parabolic mirror 3 can be coupled into the corresponding optical fiber;

C. when a customer needs to switch a light beam to another optical fiber for output to meet a corresponding processing application, the off-axis parabolic mirror 3 is also moved along the central axis of the cylinder and rotated around the central axis of the cylinder, so that the focusing center line of the off-axis parabolic mirror 3 is coincident with the central axis of the optical fiber interface of another optical fiber in the output optical fibers 1-1, 1-2 … … 1-m, 2-1, 2-2 … … 2-m, … …, n-1, n-2 … … n-m, so as to complete coupling.

The invention has the beneficial effects that:

(1) the optical fiber coupling device is novel in structural design, based on the optical characteristics of aberration elimination of the coupling collimating lens and the off-axis parabolic mirror, the optical fiber beam coupling at any position on a cylindrical surface with the central axis coaxial with the central axis of the cylindrical surface and the surface coincident with the focus of the off-axis parabolic mirror can be realized by rotating and moving the off-axis parabolic mirror along the central axis of the cylindrical surface, the number of optical coupling lenses and the structural design cost are reduced while coupling space resources are output by utilizing an optical switch to the maximum extent, and the optical fiber coupling device is particularly suitable for multi-option output occasions of a single optical fiber laser with different requirements on;

(2) according to the optical switch system provided by the invention, the off-axis parabolic mirror can respectively move along the cylindrical central axis and rotate around the cylindrical central axis, 2 dimensions are saved for the adjusting mode of each output optical fiber interface, and the mechanical design difficulty is greatly reduced; in the coaxial multi-core and paraxial multi-core optical fibers, the adjustment on energy distribution and power distribution can be realized, an additional adjustment module is not needed, and the cost is saved to a certain extent;

(3) the optical switch system provided by the invention has the advantages that the number of lenses is small, the energy loss is small, the off-axis parabolic mirror is provided with the water cooling channel, the use stability of the optical switch is favorably improved, and the generation of the thermal lens effect is inhibited to a certain extent.

Although embodiments of the present invention have been shown and described, it will be appreciated by those skilled in the art that changes, modifications, substitutions and alterations can be made in these embodiments without departing from the principles and spirit of the invention, the scope of which is defined in the appended claims and their equivalents.