To homogenize inversion profiles and mitigate thermo-optic effects in high-power, end-pumped lasers the optimal spatial profile of pump beam should be close to ‘top-hat’ one, whereas typical pumping beams have Gaussian-like profiles. The aim of work was to examine feasibility of laser beam transformation with the use of a beam shaper consisted of a pair of aspheric refractive elements. Two beam shapers (with magnification m = 0.4, 0.8 respectively) for transformation of Gaussian profile to Super-Gaussian were designed and fabricated applying Magneto-Rheological Finishing technology. Both elements were experimentally verified for diffraction limited and partially coherent laser beams. The analytical model based on Fourier transform plane wave decomposition was applied for verification of experiments and to determine the performance of fabricated elements.

Date Published: 5 December 2014
PDF: 10 pages
Proc. SPIE 9441, 19th Polish-Slovak-Czech Optical Conference on Wave and Quantum Aspects of Contemporary Optics, 94410C (5 December 2014); doi: 10.1117/12.2079175

Published in SPIE Proceedings Vol. 9441:
19th Polish-Slovak-Czech Optical Conference on Wave and Quantum Aspects of Contemporary Optics
Agnieszka Popiolek-Masajada; Waclaw Urbanczyk, Editor(s)