The demand for a uniform intensity distribution of working laser beams (top-hat beam) is growing steadily, especially in the field of laser material processing. Therefore, a refractive beam-shaping system that transforms a collimated Gaussian beam into a collimated top-hat beam was developed. As a result, a compact optical design was derived, which has a very high optical performance and is suitable for series production. Additionally, it can be combined with existing monolithic beam expanders from asphericon GmbH to achieve modular top-hat generation. A characterization of the system performance was carried out. The results of the design and the characterization will be presented.

Date Published: 27 September 2016
PDF: 7 pages
Proc. SPIE 9950, Laser Beam Shaping XVII, 995005 (27 September 2016); doi: 10.1117/12.2236140

Published in SPIE Proceedings Vol. 9950:
Laser Beam Shaping XVII
Andrew Forbes; Todd E. Lizotte, Editor(s)