Diode laser beam shaping and propagation characteristics

Under illumination of a solid absorbing target by short laser pulse the acoustic waves are excited both inside the target and in the surrounding air. When the surface of the target is plane the shape of acoustic signal in the air depends on the intensity distribution in the illuminating laser beam. In this report the results of restoration of two-dimensional intensity distribution of pulse laser beam by method of acoustic tomography are presented. As the target a plane metal plate was used. Measurements of acoustic signals were carried out by nine microphones placed around the illuminating beam not far from the target. Two-dimensional intensity distribution of laser beam obtained by acoustic methods are in good agreement with data obtained by usual photometric method.© (1993) COPYRIGHT SPIE--The International Society for Optical Engineering. Downloading of the abstract is permitted for personal use only.

The laser light is characterized by high degree of directionality, monochromaticity, coherence and spectral brightness. In this manuscript, we have designed and analyzed multimode spatial laser beam. A multimode generator is used to produce four individual polarization modes (LG00, LG22, LG30 and LG31) of laser beam which further converted into thin profiles of individuals and weighted sum of modes. The circular and square aperture effect also make them more stable and coherence as compare to conventional laser beam. Various mode profiles of the beam including single mode and multimode have been shown in results. The combined design of multimode spatial laser beam is simple in construction, cost effective and precise.

The propagation parameters of CO2 laser beams have been investigated using second moment and knife-edge width measurement techniques. The characteristics of two laser types have been measured: a low power stabilized single frequency instrument and a prototype 3 kW laser. The propagation parameters have been estimated by using two commercial beam analyzing instruments: a rotating drum knife-edge device and a 2D array scanner. The propagation of errors through the analysis procedures has been investigated. The experiments were designed to assess the viability of the draft ISO standard for the measurement of beam width and propagation characteristics of real laser beams. Uncertainties in the estimated beam parameters, resulting from the propagation of errors, are taken into account when assessing the relative merits of the width measurement procedures. It was found that, for the high quality laser beam investigated, there were some small but systematic variations in estimating the width of waists of subject laser beams. In the case of the lower quality, high power laser beam, both the knife-edge and second moment techniques produced estimates of the input beam waist properties that were within the experimental uncertainty limits but again some inconsistency was displayed. It is suggested that the source of the inconsistency is diffraction by hard-edge apertures in the beam path. Nevertheless, the ISO standard procedures are judged to be suitable for the measurement of important beam parameters with an accuracy that is sufficient for the majority of industrial applications.© (1995) COPYRIGHT SPIE--The International Society for Optical Engineering. Downloading of the abstract is permitted for personal use only.

Multimode high-power laser diodes suffer from inefficient beam focusing, leading to a focal spot 10–100 times greater than the diffraction limit. This inevitably restricts their wider use in ‘direct-diode’ applications in materials processing and biomedical photonics. We report here a ‘super-focusing’ characteristic for laser diodes, where the exploitation of self-interference of modes enables a significant reduction of the focal spot size. This is achieved by employing a conical microlens fabricated on the tip of a multimode optical fibre using 3D laser nano-printing (also known as multi-photon lithography). When refracted by the conical surface, the modes of the fibre-coupled laser beam self-interfere and form an elongated narrow focus, usually referred to as a ‘needle’ beam. The multiphoton lithography technique allows the realisation of almost any optical element on a fibre tip, thus providing the most suitable interface for free-space applications of multimode fibre-delivered laser beams. In addition, we demonstrate the optical trapping of microscopic objects with a super-focused multimode laser diode beam thus rising new opportunities within the applications sector where lab-on-chip configurations can be exploited. Most importantly, the demonstrated super-focusing approach opens up new avenues for the ‘direct-diode’ applications in material processing and 3D printing, where both high power and tight focusing is required.

A methodology for correct measurements of the spatial and energy characteristics of a laser beam is considered, based on the determination of the initial moments of the spatial intensity distribution in the beam cross section. The classification of radiation fields participating in the measuring process is given: emitted, measured and measured. It is shown that ISO 11146:2005 “Lasers and laser-related equipment. Test methods for laser beam widths, divergence angles and beam propagation ratios, Part 1-3” for measuring the spatial and energy characteristics of laser beams leads to incorrect measurements. This is due to the fact that the recommendations for the application of ISO 11146:2005 do not take into account the dynamic range of the used matrix radiation detectors, and the characteristics of the emitted field of interest to the user turn out to be diverging, which violates the uniformity of measurements. Moreover, the conditions ensuring the convergence of the results are practically impracticable. To solve these problems, it is proposed to establish and regulate the lower level of the dynamic range of measurements of the intensity of the used matrix receivers and to consider the spatial and energy characteristics of the emitted field of interest to the user, depending on the set value of the lower level. It is shown that measurements with this methodology become correct and make it possible to compare the characteristics of laser beams obtained by different array detectors. Formulas are given that take into account the effect of the lower level of the dynamic range of the matrix radiation detectors on the measurement result. These formulas should be recommended for inclusion in the updated edition of the national standard GOST R ISO 11146-2008 “Lasers and laser installations (systems). Methods for measuring widths, divergence angles and propagation coefficients of laser beams. Parts 1-3”.

A computer generated hologram (CGH) has been developed for laser transformation hardening with a fiber-coupled high-power diode laser (HPDL). The laser beam shaped with the CGH is purposely non-uniform in order to obtain uniform depth of the hardened profile. The optimum intensity distribution of laser beam has been determined with the numerical simulation of dynamic thermal analysis based on the finite element method. A binary phase CGH of silica glass was designed and fabricated to realize the optimized intensity distribution of laser beam. When a steel plate surface was hardened by the 330W laser beam with the fabricated CGH, the cross-sectional hardened profile had a uniform depth, compared with experimental results for a defocused Gaussian beam and a flat-top shaped beam.

Laser treatment has become a popular method for resolving peri-implantitis, but the full range of its effects on implant surfaces is unknown. The purpose of the present investigation was to analyze the influence of different clinically applicable erbium:yttrium-aluminum-garnet (Er:YAG), carbon dioxide (CO2), and diode laser parameters on titanium surfaces that were either polished or sandblasted, large-grit, acid-etched (SLA). Six polished and six SLA titanium disks were irradiated at nine different power settings (n = 54 polished, 54 SLA) with Er:YAG, CO2, or diode lasers. The CO2 and diode lasers were used in continuous wave mode, and the Er:YAG laser was used in a pulsed manner. The surface of each disk was analyzed by scanning electron microscopy and confocal white light microscopy. Each disk was irradiated on six circular areas of 5 mm in diameter with the same specific laser setting for 10 seconds. Within the chosen parameters, the CO2 and diode laser did not cause any visible surface alterations on either the polished or SLA disks. In contrast, both polished and SLA disks showed surface alterations when irradiated with the pulsed Er:YAG laser. The SLA surfaces showed alteration after 10 seconds of irradiation with Er:YAG laser at 300 mJ/10 Hz. The surfaces of the polished disks did not show alteration with the Er:YAG laser until they were irradiated at the higher energy of 500 mJ/10 Hz for 10 seconds. The results of confocal white light microscopy were in agreement with scanning electron micrographs. In contrast to continuous-wave diode and CO2 laser irradiation, pulsed Er:YAG laser irradiation caused distinct alterations with power settings beyond 300 mJ/10 Hz on the SLA surface and 500 mJ/10 Hz on the polished surface. Thus, it is only safe to use the Er:YAG laser for implant surface irradiation with settings no higher than 300 or 500 mJ/10 Hz.

Beam delivery fibers have been used widely for transporting the optical beams from the laser to the subject of irradiation in a variety of markets including industrial, medical and defense applications. Standard beam delivery fibers range from 50 to 1500 μm core diameter and are used to guide CW or pulsed laser light, generated by solid state, fiber or diode lasers. Here, we introduce a novel fiber technology capable of simultaneously controlling the beam profile and the angular divergence of single-mode (SM) and multi-mode (MM) beams using a single-optical fiber. Results of beam transformation from a SM to a MM beam with flat-top intensity profile are presented in the case of a controlled BPP at 3.8 mm*mrad. The scaling capabilities of this flat-top fiber design to achieve a range of BPP values while ensuring a flat-top beam profile are discussed. In addition, we demonstrate, for the first time to the best of our knowledge, the homogenizer capabilities of this novel technology, able to transform random MM beams into uniform flat-top beam profiles with very limited impact on the beam brightness. This study is concluded with a discussion on the scalability of this fiber technology to fit from 50 up to 1500 μm core fibers and its potential for a broader range of applications.

A new target-in-the-loop (TIL) atmospheric sensing concept for in situ remote measurements of major laser beam characteristics and atmospheric turbulence parameters is proposed and analyzed numerically. The technique is based on utilization of an integral relationship between complex amplitudes of the counterpropagating optical waves known as overlapping integral or interference metric, whose value is preserved along the propagation path. It is shown that the interference metric can be directly measured using the proposed TIL sensing system composed of a single-mode fiber-based optical transceiver and a remotely located retro-target. The measured signal allows retrieval of key beam and atmospheric turbulence characteristics including scintillation index and the path-integrated refractive index structure parameter.

In this paper, we present results of experimental investigation of the thermal lens effect in ethanol by a dual beam arrangement. The influence of thermal lens strength on a probe beam passing through this thermal lens medium was analyzed. Thermal lens was induced by focusing the beam of a high power diode laser in ethanol and the profile of a He-Ne laser as a probe beam was inspected. The comparison of the He-Ne laser beam profile in the condition of various diode laser beam powers shows that the beam quality of the probe can be significantly affected and the its deformed profile depends on the strength of thermal lens effect.

In this work we report on a novel optical design for beam shaping and focalization of high-power diode laser bars. The goals of our study are: the increase the optical throughput of the beam shaping device with respect to standard solutions and either to enhance the irradiance on a target or to inject the laser beam into a smaller fibre than with respect to beam shaping system based on plane surfaces. The high power diode laser bars pose serious difficulties in their optical handling due to their strong difference between the two transverse axes, which induce a strong astigmatic and asymmetric output radiation. As is well known, the beam quality is very different in the two axes called slow axis and fast axis, and in particular the slow axis is composed by the superposition of several multimodal sources. The beam quality in this axis is very low (its etendue may exceed 2000 mm mrad). On the other hand, the fast axis has a very high beam quality, near diffraction limited, although with very high divergence (30°-50°). The common solution for the application of the laser radiation is a fast axis aspheric micro lens in front of the emitters, in order to achieve its collimation. Typical values of the fast axis collimated beam are 0.7mm and less than 6mrad. However, the so obtained collimated beam is poorly focusable with a standard lens, and a few methods were proposed to overcome the problem. The more relevant solutions include: the stepped mirror technique, the plane parallel mirrors pair, micro prisms array and confocal micro lens array. Each of these techniques is based on the equalization of the beam parameter product by the subdivision of the beam in the slow axis and its reshaping. For all these techniques the efficiency spans from 50% to 70%. The best focalization results allow the coupling in a fibre of 400μm diameter, with NA-0.22. The aim of this work is the design and the realization of a new device, that is considered as target the following aspects: 1) the maximum optical efficiency in the beam shaping process, 2) the optimal equalization of the beam parameter product for the two axes, 3) the use of few optical elements and 4) a very compact size. These goals are addressed by a scheme that splits the collimated beam from the laser diode into different portions while the length of the optical paths of each sub element is kept constant, and by the subsequent use of short focal length aspheric lenses for the focalization of the transformed beam. Each sub-beam is deflected by a couple of plane parallel mirrors, whose normal is directed to equalize the BPP without any mutual shadowing. An optimal solution can be easily envisaged for a laser source of common size of 0.7 x 10 mm. The condition on equal optical path length has the noticeable property of placing the virtual position of the individual portions into which the original beam is split at the same distance with respect to target. Thanks to this, their subsequent focusing is unaffected by the axial displacement of the common solution by the stepped mirrors. In fact, to correct this effect, this latter technique requires the use of a prism pair, involving complexity, size enlargement and higher costs. In this work both an extensive ray tracing and optical analysis is presented as well as the experimental characterization of an experimental model. Moreover, we also report on the technique for the realization of th tilted-face plane mirrors of which is composed our beam shaping device. The scheme of beam shaping here reported can be extended to higher power beam by means of the technique of the beam combination by polarization coupling or that of the optical beam compression. Examples of theses developments are discussed in the paper, and experimental results presented. The most direct applications of the class of optical devices here reported are the high power diode laser direct application in material processing or manufacturing, the coupling into multimode optical fiber of the diode laser radiation as well as the fiber laser end pumping.

The propagation characteristics of high-power laser beams in plasma is an important research topic and has many potential applications in fields such as laser machining, laser-driven accelerators and laser-driven inertial confined fusion. The dynamic evolution of high-power Laguerre-Gaussian (LG) beams in plasma is numerically investigated by using the finite-difference time-domain (FDTD) method based on the nonlinear Drude model, with both plasma frequency and collision frequency modulated by the light intensity of laser beam. The numerical algorithms and implementation techniques of FDTD method are presented for numerically simulating the nonlinear permittivity model of plasma and generating the LG beams with predefined parameters. The simulation results show that the plasma has different field modulation effects on the two exemplified LG beams with different cross-sectional patterns. The self-focusing and stochastic absorption phenomena of high-power laser beam in plasma are also demonstrated. This research also provides a new means for the field modulation of laser beams by plasma.

We study the influence of spatial characteristics of radiation of high-power mid-infrared quantum-cascade lasers on the efficiency of coupling to the optical fiber.

Propagation characteristics of annular laser beams passing through the reflection Bragg grating with deformation

This paper focuses on realizing the three important aspects of bar code scanner: generating a high quality scanning light beam, acquiring a fairly even distribution characteristic of light collection, achieving a low signal dynamic range over a large depth of field. To do this, we analyze the spatial distribution and propagation characteristics of scanning laser beam, the vignetting characteristic of optical collection system and their respective optimal design; propose a novel optical automatic gain control method to attain a constant collection over a large working depth.© (1996) COPYRIGHT SPIE--The International Society for Optical Engineering. Downloading of the abstract is permitted for personal use only.