Laser beam expanders beam expanders optical assemblies. Dec 01, 2017 beam expanders consist of transmissive configurations, with galilean or keplerian designs, and reflective configurations, which use a series of mirrors, similar to microscope designs. In the design of a laser beam expander, the objective and image lenses are reversed. Standard or custommade laser beam expanders for use in the uv, visible, and nir spectral ranges have a unique mechanical slidinglens design, ensuring high pointing stability and minimal dimensions. Pdf a reflection beam expander for short cavity dye. Fixed magnification laser beam expanders optomechanics. Translation mounts are designed for the critical alignment of transmissive optics, such as placing a beam collimator within a preexisting beam path. Variable xyuv beam expander for highpower laser beam shaping georg nadorff a, frank dewitt iv a, sten lindau b acvi melles griot, 55 science parkway, rochester, ny 14620. If the red laser beam comes out through the telescopes aperture, it. These galilean beam expanders have threaded input and output apertures, which allow additional lenses and filters to be installed easily along the optical axis of the beam expander.
Note on achromatic multipleprism beam expanders pdf. Kugler kst a series of beam expanders featuring direct watercooled copper mirrors for highest laser powers. These expanders make use of the prism pairs first introduced by brewster 18. By expanding a beam prior to focusing, smaller focal spot sizes can be achieved. Beam expansion and beam shaping at the next level asphericon. A new beam expander device to be used in a pulsed dye laser cavity is described. While a variety of offtheshelf beam expanders are available, occasionally these standard beam expanders may not meet your application needs. Compact beam expanders that do not sacrifice laser beam diameter. Ruggedly constructed be beam expanders conveniently and easily mount to the.
The laser will hit the secondary mirror and will reflected beam to the secondary. Geomatec beam expanders are used in many material processing markets including laser marking systems and semiconductor processing devices because of the high quality output beam and attractive pricing. Zoom beam expander eksma optics offers compact galilean type zoom beam expanders for nd. The beam expander 1x8x is part of the silverline tm highpower lens series and is designed for laser applications in wavelength ranges of 355 or 10301080 nanometers the optical system of the objective lens is designed in such a way that a diffractionlimited image quality is achieved across the entire expansion range. The standard reference for laser safety is the american standard for the safe use of lasers, z6. Variable xyuv beam expander for highpower laser beam. Simple methods are presented for aligning beam expanders, pinholes, and crosshairs to laser beams. Optical surfaces laser beam expanders incorporate offaxis mirrors which provide an unobstructed output and highly efficient transmission.
Beam expanders are designed to work with cmount threaded cameras that have 4. Beam expanders we manufacture a variety of laser beam expanders to suit most laser types, from small waveguide lasers up to multikilowatt industrial lasers. They are ideal for applications in which a small spot must be formed at some distance from the laser, or where the collimation range must be extended for illumination, or for alignment of distant objects. Analytic design of a zoom xy beam expander with freeform optical surfaces. In a keplerian beam expander the input beam is focussed to a point between the two lenses. Variable beam expander manually adjustable or motorized for different wavelengths. Pdf paraxial properties of threeelement zoom systems for laser. Diopter correction function is provided, customer can finetune the collimated beam. We also offer variablemagnification beam expanders and reflective beam expanders. Perfect gaussian laser beams are often characterized by a parameter known as beam divergence. Design considerations and performance of a prism beam expander are presented. Beatrix will consist of an xray source in the focus a grazing incidence paraboloidal mirror to obtain a parallel beam, followed by a. Translation mount for laser beam expander collimator.
Contemporary laser beam expander designs are afocal systems that developed from wellestablished optical telescope. Motorized laser beam expanders and reducers mex 4lasers. Before we get into the ins and outs of correct beam expander usage, youve got to know when you need them in the first place. Generally prismatic beam expanders use several prisms and are known as multipleprism beam expanders.
The function of a beam expander is to reduce the divergence angle of laser beams and thus make the focused beam diameter smaller. Contemporary laser beam expanders are afocal systems developed from wellestablished optical telescope fundamentals. Adjustable divergence enables fine tuning of output beam collimation. This creates a spot of concentrated energy within the beam expander which heats the air within the system and deflects light from its optical path. This combination produces small focused spot sizes at the work surface, with high. Friesem novel compact beam expanders that could be useful for applications such as providing light to. Laser beam expanders increase the diameter of a collimated input beam to a larger collimated output beam.
Galilean type, fixed expansion ratio from 2x to 10x beam expanders and zoom beam expanders with 1x8x expansion ratio for 1064 nm, 532 nm and 355 nm wavelengths. A beam expander is a two or more element optical system that changes the beams size and divergence characteristics. Keplerian beam expanders are designed so that the collimated input beam focuses to a spot between the objective and image lenses, producing a point within the system where the laser s energy is concentrated figure 3. Brochure dec2014 pls named precision laser scanning. How to design your own beam expander using stock optics. Bsl beam expanders introduction the bsl17 series are a set of compact and economical beamexpanders for use with small or medium size co2 lasers, such as synrad, and coherent diamond lasers. A five element zoomable anamorphic beam expander is designed and fabricated for a laser illumination system used in the manufacture of patterned microcircuit substrates. Motorized laser beam expanders mex series used to increase laser beam diameter and adjust divergence. This is because the small beam spot created at the common focal points in the first method results in high energy densities, which may cause the air to break down or ionize. Compact beam expander with linear gratings revital shechter, yaakov amitai, and asher a. These beam expanders can be conveniently attached to most hene lasers with the 2 accessory thread and except for the t8x, are equipped with precision beam centering adjustments to compensate for slight decentrations of the entering laser beam. Pdf spectrally narrow pulsed dye laser without beam expander.
How to build a beam expander beam expansion or reduction is a common application requirement in most labs using lasers or light sources and optics. Standard or custommade beam expanders have a unique mechanical closed loop slidinglens design ensuring high pointing stability and minimal dimensions. Variable xyuv beam expander for highpower laser beam shaping. Beam expanders zoom and compact beam expanders eksma. Lesson 12 did the same design with only two aspheric elements, with excellent results. These beam expanders are light weight and short bodied and because they are galileo type design, they have little aberration and correction. Beam expander 3x, 4x and 5x expansion safeguard your tiseries laser optics in dirty environments with a synrad beam expander ensure the tiseries laser on your production line is safeguarded with extra protection from dirt, dust and processing vapors with a synrad be300, be400 or be500 beam expander. The reflective design of these beam expanders is achromatic and with aluminium coatings can operate from uv to far ir without adjustment. A beam expander is a set of lenses which reduces the beam size over long distances by expanding the beam at aperture since laser beams do expand over long distances and loses its brightness as far as the beam travels.
Laser beam expanders for co2 lasers be10600 optosigma. Beam expander, pinhole, and crosshair alignment to laser beams. All adjustments can be made quickly and easily by hand using our unique zoom and focus scale engraved directly onto the beam expander. Manual beam expanders vex series used to increase or decrease laser beam diameter. Nov 18, 2015 newport demonstrates how to assemble both a galilean and a keplerian beam expander using standard nbk7 lenses and the alinetm selfaligning lens mount system. American laser enterprises, diamond, edmund optics, jenoptik.
Homebusiness beam expanders market pdf accelerating immense growth during 20202024 with emerging top key players. Jul 21, 2016 beam expanders are required in most laser systems to change the diameter of the incoming source to match the requirement of the optical system. Beam expanders are optical devices that take a collimated beam of light and expand its size or, used in reverse, reduce its size in laser physics they are used either as intracavity or extracavity elements. These beam expanders are specially designed for large divergent laser beam.
In a laser beam expander, the placement of the objective and image lenses is reversed. However, since for prisms of the same material zero dispersion is obtained at a unique wavelength, it is suggested that the adjective quasiachromatic is more appropriate to describe these laser beam expanders. There is also a modular range for experimental and laboratory purposes. There are many ready made beam expanders available on the market, but often they are not available in the required expansion ratio or spectral range. The most common type of beam expander is derived from the galilean telescope which usually has one negative input lens and one positive output lens. Pdf analytic design of a zoom xybeam expander with. Extracavity doubleprism beam expander to correct the ellipticity of laser beams generated by semiconductor lasers maker and ferguson, 1989. The system consists of a cylindrical mirror used off axis and a collimating lens. Because it is a beam expander type of the galilean, it is compact and has.
Beam expanders for laser material processing jenoptik. The expander consists of an array of multiple optically transparent fibers of a first diameter alternating with fibers of one or more diameters different from said first diameter arranged in parallel and in a single plane. The 4x beam expander is an expanding telescope that images the beam as it looks at 8mm from the end of the expander onto the ccd while enlarging the. Compact beam expanders that do not sacrifice laser beam. Optical surfaces ltd laser beam expander common focus option. If they are used for largedivergence laser beam, you may turn the inner. Translation mounts are designed for the critical alignment of transmissive optics, such as placing a beam collimator within a preexisting beam path when two mounts are used on each end of a component, translational and angular corrections can be made. Powerline avia nx uv laser subsystem for micromachining applications here the powerline avia nx is a class iv laser subsystem which mates a 40 watt avia nx laser source with a two axis galvanometer deflector, a beam expander and an ftheta scan lens. Infinitely adjustable beam expanders deliver the high level of precision. These laser beam expanders can be used with cw and pulsed laser sources and incorporate large input and output apertures so as to produce diffractionlimited, expanded or reduced beams for a wide range of input beams.
The x3 beam expander is explicitly made for our handheld lasers. These galilean beam expanders incorporate the highly regarded tropel optical designs with improved adjustability and mounting. Paraxial properties of threeelement zoom systems for laser beam expanders article pdf available in optics express 2218 september 2014 with 402 reads how we measure reads. In highpowered laser applications it is important to use the second method of beani expansion. The beam expander is the front end of a gaussian to tophat beam shaping illuminator. Us6157756a laser beam expander and beam profile converter.
For this reason, if you need the expanded beam with no chipping or deformation, the incident beam must be strictly in accordance with the center of the optical axis. This reference is the basis for many of the federal regulations for. All the fixed expanders are the same size so if your source beam diameter changes it is a simple matter to swap an expander with a different power. In size restricted applications, it is desirable to use a compact beam expander but in most cases a compact beam expander is only suitable for small diameter beams. These laser beam expanders can be used with cw and pulsed laser sources and incorporate large input and output apertures so as to produce diffractionlimited, expanded or reduced beams for a. All the fixed beam expanders have the same housing size regardless of the expansion ratio and wavelength.
Beam expanders with various custom coatings can be ordered on request. An inexpensive laser beam expander including a first mirror system comprising an off axis section of a schwarzschild telescope system with a first, convex spherical mirror and a second, concave spherical mirror, having a first common center of curvature, the input laser beam being incident on the first mirror and reflected therefrom to the second mirror, the second mirror forming a real image. The 4x beam expander is an expanding telescope that images the beam as it looks at 8mm from the end of the expander onto the ccd while enlarging the image 4x. Laser beam expanders with diopter correction function belbed.
Design and advancement status of the beam expander. Geomatec beam expanders high precision, short lead time. A beam expander is a two or more element optical system that changes the beam s size and divergence characteristics. The most common type of beam expander is derived from the galilean telescope which usually has. Laser beam expanders used in optics and photonics applications are available at edmund optics. Beam expansion or reduction is a common application requirement in most labs using lasers or light sources and optics. An alternative for the beam expander design is to use two offaxis paraboloids with a common focus. Pdf paraxial properties of threeelement zoom systems for. Laser beam expander with kinoform lenses in lesson 11 you saw how a laser beam expander could be designed with ordinary spherical lenses and learned that one would need many lens elements to achieve good performance that way. In a laser beam expander design, the placement of the objective and image lenses is reversed. The reliability of these methods illustrates that often these procedures can be greatly simplified by observing the laser beam downstream from the element being aligned. Generalized laser beam shaping devises as discussed by duarte 1995c. Quasi parallel input beam, small beam size and possibly submicron size if make potential optics solutions different from plasma source solutions. Simply transform collimated gaussian laser beams into collimated and focused tophat beams and take advantage of the easy handling.
Newport demonstrates how to assemble both a galilean and a keplerian beam expander using standard nbk7 lenses and the alinetm selfaligning lens mount system. Designing your own beam expander provides the flexibility to design to your exact application specifications, and using stock optics reduces your time from design to prototype to days. The input of each beam expander has internal sm05 0. In the days of purely spherical mirrors, this had been accomplished by selecting. A laser beam expander is designed to increase the diameter of a collimated input beam to a larger collimated output beam. In the keplerian beam expander design, the collimated input beam focuses to a spot between the objective and image lenses, producing a point within the system where the laser s energy is concentrated figure 1. Using a prism beam expander and holographic grating, a dye laser pumped by a nitrogen laser has given 15 kw of.
These systems are suited for typical medium power levels of up to. Paraxial properties of threeelement zoom systems for laser beam expanders. Beam expanders market pdf accelerating immense growth. The geomatec zoom expander is especially noteworthy as a zoom optic with very low beam distortion.
A device for expanding a laser beam into an extremely wide diffraction arc is described. Variable beam expanders vex and reducers vre 4lasers. The graphs below show the reflectance per surface as a function of wavelength over an extended wavelength range. Changing the distance between two lenses inside the beam expander can decrease the beam divergence to obtain better collimation of the laser beam. The lenses in the uv fused silica beam expanders have one of five ar coatings deposited on both sides of each optic in the beam expanders to minimize reflections at the airtoglass interfaces. The tightly toleranced optical system downstream of the beam expander should not be. The ray passes through the fiber by internal reflecting and emerges from another end, illuminating the screen nearby. The power efficiency of this non optimized laser prototype was 10% and a spectral. This design has a slightly longer footprint and should not be used in high power laser applications unless in a vacuum,however, it is the preferred design for fizeau applications. Beam expanders consist of transmissive configurations, with galilean or keplerian designs, and reflective configurations, which use a series of mirrors, similar to microscope designs. Standas diffraction limited galilean type beam expanders offer variable magnification of 2x12x or other ranges see table below with adjustable focus to correct laser beam divergence. A laser beam incident on the array is transmitted therethrough and expanded into an. Yag lasers fundamental and its harmonics wavelength. Laser beam expanders designed to use with high powered lasers that are made of lenses attached together without using glue airgap.
Beam expanders consist of two lenses that are built according to the galileo principle and therefore do not generate an intermediate focus. Beam expanders have two main purposes in the laser industry. Pdf paraxial properties of threeelement zoom systems. Galilean telescope design reduces length of beam expander and avoids intermediate focus. Beam expanders are required in most laser systems to change the diameter of the incoming source to match the requirement of the optical system. Beam expanders are used in applications such as laser scanning, interferometry, and remote sensing. Even with the first laser telescopes delivered by kugler 25 years ago, astigmatism compensation has already been one of the main issues assuring diffraction limited performance.