Historical perspective of laser beam shaping

David L. Shealy

doi:10.1117/12.453505

24 October 2002 Historical perspective of laser beam shaping

David L. Shealy

Proceedings Volume 4770, Laser Beam Shaping III; (2002) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.453505
Event: International Symposium on Optical Science and Technology, 2002, Seattle, WA, United States

Abstract

An overview of the history and current practices of laser beam shaping is presented. When diffraction effects are not important, geometrical methods for laser beam shaping (ray tracing, conservation of energy within a bundle of rays, and the constant optical path length condition) can be used to determine system configurations, including aspheric elements and spherical-surface GRIN lenses, which are required to transform an input laser beam profile into a more useful form of illumination. This paper also summarizes applications of these techniques to the optical design of a two-plano-aspheric lens system for shaping a rotationally symmetric Gaussian beam, a two-mirror system with no central obscuration for shaping an elliptical Gaussian input beam, and a three-element spherical surface GRIN system for shaping a rotationally symmetric Gaussian beam.

Citation Download Citation

David L. Shealy "Historical perspective of laser beam shaping", Proc. SPIE 4770, Laser Beam Shaping III, (24 October 2002); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.453505

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