Tapered fused waveguide for teeth whitening
View Patent ↗A radiation emitting apparatus is disclosed that emits a substantially homogenous beam of radiation from an irregularly shaped output end. As described herein, a radiation emitting apparatus includes a bundled fiber guide coupled to an energy distribution tuner. The bundled fiber guide is coupled to the energy distribution tuner to receive a substantially uniform distribution of high power energy. The bundled fiber guide is configured to distribute the energy to emit a substantially uniform distribution of lower power energy toward a target surface, such as a body surface. The bundled fiber guide may include a plurality of fused optic fibers, a plurality of beam splitting mirror elements, or tapered waveguides.
1. A radiation emitting apparatus, comprising:
a fiber optic end;
an energy-distribution tuner coupled to the fiber optic end and constructed to generate a distribution of radiation at an output of the energy-distribution tuner, at least part of the distribution of radiation being generated at the output with a first magnification; and
a fiber guide or waveguide comprising a taper and constructed to direct energy from the energy-distribution tuner in a direction away from the fiber guide or waveguide with a second magnification greater than the first magnification;
wherein the fiber guide or waveguide comprises a coherent tapered fused fiber.
2. The radiation emitting apparatus as set forth in claim 1 , wherein the energy-distribution tuner comprises a cylindrical reflector.
3. The radiation emitting apparatus as set forth in claim 1 , wherein:
the energy-distribution tuner comprises a cylindrical reflector; and
the fiber optic end is centered to emit energy through the cylindrical reflector.
4. The radiation emitting apparatus as set forth in claim 3 , wherein a longitudinal center axis of the cylindrical reflector is aligned with a longitudinal center axis of the fiber optic end.
5. The radiation emitting apparatus as set forth in claim 4 , wherein the radiation emitting apparatus is disposed within a handpiece.
6. The radiation emitting apparatus as set forth in claim 1 , wherein the fiber guide or waveguide is coupled to the energy-distribution tuner to receive a uniform distribution of high power energy therefrom, and is configured to emit a substantially uniform distribution of energy having a lower power than received from the energy distribution tuner.
7. The radiation emitting apparatus as set forth in claim 1 , wherein the fiber guide or waveguide is configured to emit a substantially uniform distribution of energy from an irregularly shaped output end.
8. The radiation emitting apparatus as set forth in claim 7 , wherein the irregularly shaped output end includes a curved surface having a non-circular cross-section.
9. The radiation emitting apparatus as set forth in claim 1 , wherein the fiber guide or waveguide includes a plurality of fused optic fibers.