Apparatus for measuring the mode quality of a laser beam

Details Apparatus for measuring the mode quality of a laser beam Apparatus for measuring the mode quality of a laser beam

1992-01-24

1993-05-25

Rosenberger, Richard A.

Optics: measuring and testing

Lamp beam direction or pattern

G01J 100

Patent

active

052144852

ABSTRACT:
A method and apparatus for determining the quality of a multimode laser beam (10). In the preferred embodiment, the apparatus includes a lens (32) for creating a transformed or imaged waist from the input beam. The location of the transformed beam waist and its diameter are then determined. These steps can be carried out by chopping the beam using a rotating hub (34) having apertures (36,38) for selectively passing the beam. Preferably, one of the apertures has a pair of 45.degree. knife edges (40,42). The transmission of the beam past the knife edge is monitored by a detector (30). In operation, the lens focal position is varied while the transmission of the beam past the knife edge is monitored in order to locate and measure the diameter of the transformed waist. The diameter of the beam at one other known location is measured. A processor then calculates beam quality by fitting these measurements to a mathematical model. Once the quality of the beam is calculated, the location of the original beam waist and its diameter can be derived. Once all of the beam parameters are derived, the propagation characteristics of the beam can be predicted.

REFERENCES:
patent: 3617755 (1971-11-01), Arnaud
patent: 4160598 (1979-07-01), Firester et al.
Arnaud et al., "Technique for Fast Measurement of Gaussian Laser Beam Parameters", Applied Optics, vol. 10, No. 12 (Dec. 1971) pp. 2775-2776.
Fleischer et al. "Gaussian Beam Profiling: How And Why" Lasers & Optronics (May 1987) pp. 61-64.

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