18 September 2024 High-throughput homogenization of a quasi-Gaussian ultrafast laser beam using a combined refractive beam shaper and spatial light modulator
Hailang Pan, Deepak Sapkota, Aodhan McIlvenny, Anthony Lu, Alex Picksley, Adrian Woodley, Vassilia Zorba, Anthony Gonsalves, Tong Zhou, Jeroen van Tilborg
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Abstract

Efficiently shaping femtosecond, transverse Gaussian laser beams to flat-top beams with flat wavefronts is critical for large-scale material processing and manufacturing. Existing beam shaping devices fall short either in final beam homogeneity or efficiency. We present an approach that uses refractive optics to perform the majority of the beam shaping and then uses a fine-tune device (spatial light modulator) to refine the intensity profile. For the beam that we selected, circularly asymmetric with intensity fluctuations, our method achieved a uniformity of 0.055 within 90% of the beam area at 92% efficiency. The optimization involved an iterative beam shaping process that converged to optimum within 10 iterations.

© 2024 Society of Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineers (SPIE)
Hailang Pan, Deepak Sapkota, Aodhan McIlvenny, Anthony Lu, Alex Picksley, Adrian Woodley, Vassilia Zorba, Anthony Gonsalves, Tong Zhou, and Jeroen van Tilborg "High-throughput homogenization of a quasi-Gaussian ultrafast laser beam using a combined refractive beam shaper and spatial light modulator," Optical Engineering 63(9), 094103 (18 September 2024). https://doi.org/10.1117/1.OE.63.9.094103
Received: 19 April 2024; Accepted: 24 August 2024; Published: 18 September 2024
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KEYWORDS
Spatial light modulators

Beam shaping

Homogenization

Materials processing

Ultrafast lasers

Laser processing

Manufacturing

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