This paper presents a beam shaping device namely, a Diffractive Optical Element (DOE), which is used to change a beam having a Gaussian intensity profile into a beam with a uniform intensity profile. The DOE used in this work was fabricated from ZnSe and its performance was evaluated using a cw CO2 laser. In most cases such elements are effective only at a specific design wavelength. However, in this paper the authors report on the design conditions which allow for wavelength independent elements. It was found that the DOE was able to successfully transform a Gaussian beam into a flattop beam for four different wavelengths in the range 9.2 µm to 10.6 µm. They also experimental results on misalignment effects and it was found that small radial offsets of the incident beam on the DOE had a significant disruptive effect on the flattop beam profile
Reference:
Degama, MP and Forbes, A. 2010. Wavelength-independent laser beam shaping. Proceedings of SPIE 7789, 778904 (2010)
Degama, M., & Forbes, A. (2010). Wavelength-independent laser beam shaping. Society of Photo-optical Instrumentation Engineers (SPIE). http://hdl.handle.net/10204/4589
Degama, MP, and A Forbes. "Wavelength-independent laser beam shaping." (2010): http://hdl.handle.net/10204/4589
Degama M, Forbes A, Wavelength-independent laser beam shaping; Society of Photo-optical Instrumentation Engineers (SPIE); 2010. http://hdl.handle.net/10204/4589 .
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