We’d all like it if lasers always worked as they were supposed to – but that’s not always the case. So, like any process, we need some kind of process control – with lasers, you’ll want to be taking accurate measurements.

You might think measuring laser power is enough – but that leaves a lot of the story untold. Instead, laser beam profiling gives you more insight. Let’s explore Ophir’s blog post, and discover how to get started with laser beam profiling.

Let’s imagine a laser as a perfect, idealized beam of light – if something goes wrong, you’ll tweak the power and it will be fixed – right? Unfortunately, it’s not so simple. Lasers degrade with time, and that can change the beam’s spot and shape.

Increasing the beam’s power could even make the shape worse.

Beam profiling is the secret to monitoring laser beam size and shape, to ensure that the beam continues to look and behave exactly as designed.

So, how do you get started in implementing a profiling solution? First, you need to choose the right equipment – and to do that, you need to decide the measurements you’re planning to take. This could include beam width, overall beam shape, ellipticity, and M-squared – the beam quality factor. Most beam parameters are based on these measurements.

Then, it’s time to choose a beam profiler. Most profilers measure beam width – but in different ways. There’s a link in the blog post that explains this further.

Scanning slit profilers take tiny samples of the beam through two narrow slits, creating two one-dimensional profiles on the X-axis and Y-axis. You can use these to create a two dimensional image, but that doesn’t provide a full picture.

CCD cameras can product a full two dimensional image of the laser. But, they require that high power lasers have more attenuation, which can be a hassle. And very small lasers, such as those that are tens of microns, might do better with scanning slits - for higher resolution.

Both scanning slits and CCD cameras can be used to measure ellipticity and M-squared, although M-Squared requires the addition of an optical rail or mirror system to make measurements at multiple locations.

If you’re not sure where to start - visit the blog post and click on the link at the bottom to talk to an Ophir expert.