Astigmatic laser beam shaping using intentionally introduced optical aberrations

James A. Harder; Michaelene W. Sprague

doi:10.1117/12.864889

17 November 2010 Astigmatic laser beam shaping using intentionally introduced optical aberrations

Proceedings Volume 7834, Electro-Optical and Infrared Systems: Technology and Applications VII; 78340W (2010) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.864889
Event: SPIE Security + Defence, 2010, Toulouse, France

Abstract

Electro-optical laser systems that use astigmatic semi-conductor laser diodes frequently use beam shaping mechanisms to eliminate the astigmatism and improve the beam uniformity. Conventional beam shaping solutions that use asymmetric diffractive or refractive optical systems are expensive and add additional opto-mechanical complexity. An effective alternative approach to using either the conventional refractive or diffractive methods is to intentionally introduce specific optical aberrations into the transmitted beam. The intentional introduction of optical aberrations is not a universal alternative, but in many cases the introduced aberrations minimize the astigmatic characteristics of the emitted laser diode radiation sufficiently to make further reduction unnecessary. The technique has been used by the authors, in a number of laser designator and LIDAR transceiver designs. This paper describes how this technique has been successfully used to produce lower cost, high performance laser systems. A simple design example is presented together with a description of the modeling techniques employed and measured field test results.

Citation Download Citation

James A. Harder and Michaelene W. Sprague "Astigmatic laser beam shaping using intentionally introduced optical aberrations", Proc. SPIE 7834, Electro-Optical and Infrared Systems: Technology and Applications VII, 78340W (17 November 2010); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.864889

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