OPTICAL BEAM GENERATION DEVICE AND OPTICAL FINDER

To secure safety when irradiating an object with an optical beam by a modulated continuous wave scheme.SOLUTION: This optical beam generation device comprises a reference signal generator for generating a reference signal, a pulse generator for generating a pulse synchronized to the reference signal, a first optical beam generator for repeatedly generating, synchronously with the reference signal, a first optical beam whose frequency is continuously changed in a prescribed frequency range, and an optical amplifier for amplifying the first optical beam synchronously with the pulse so as to generate a second optical beam. An optical finder is constituted that comprises an optical interferer for irradiating an object with the second optical beam as irradiation light that was generated by the optical beam generation device and receiving reflected light from the object, thus generating an interference wave obtained by causing the irradiation light and the reflected light to interfere, a photoelectric transducer for generating an interference signal derived by photoelectrically converting the interference wave, and a computing device for acquiring the interference signal synchronously with a pulse and analyzing the acquired interference signal.SELECTED DRAWING: Figure 1 【課題】変調連続波方式により対象物に光ビームを照射する際の安全性を確保する。【解決手段】光ビーム生成装置は、基準信号を生成する基準信号発生器と、基準信号に同期したパルスを生成するパルス発生器と、所定周波数範囲で周波数を連続的に変化させた第１光ビームを基準信号に同期させて繰り返し生成する第１光ビーム生成器と、パルスに同期して第１光ビームを増幅することにより第２光ビームを生成する光増幅器を備える。上記光ビーム生成装置により生成された第２光ビームを照射光として対象物に照射するとともに対象物からの反射光を受光し、照射光と反射光とを干渉させることにより得られる干渉波を生成する光干渉器と、干渉波を光電変換した信号である干渉信号を生成する光電変換器と、パルスに同期して前記干渉信号を取得し、取得した干渉信号を解析する演算装置と、を備えた光探知機を構成する。【選択図】図１