From Surf Wiki (app.surf) — the open knowledge base
Beam expander
Optical devices treating collimated light
Optical devices treating collimated light
Beam expanders are optical devices that take a collimated beam of light and expand its width (or, used in reverse, reduce its width).
In laser physics they are used either as intracavity or extracavity elements. They can be telescopic in nature or prismatic. Generally prismatic beam expanders use several prisms and are known as multiple-prism beam expanders.
Telescopic beam expanders include refracting and reflective telescopes. |editor1-last=Duarte |editor1-first=F. J. |editor2-last=Hillman |editor2-first=L. W.
In tunable laser resonators intracavity beam expansion usually illuminates the whole width of a diffraction grating.
Multiple-prism beam expanders
Isaac Newton was the first to describe the use of prisms as beam expanders and in multiple-prism arrays. Multiple-prism beam expanders usually deploy two to five prisms to yield large one-dimensional beam expansion factors. Designs applicable to tunable lasers with beam expansion factors of up to 200 have been disclosed in the literature.
Multiple-prism beam expanders and arrays can also be described using ray transfer matrices.
Extra-cavity beam shaping
Extra cavity hybrid beam transformers: using a telescopic beam expander, followed by a convex lens, followed by a multiple-prism beam expander, a laser beam (with a circular cross section) can be transformed into an extremely elongated beam, in the plane of propagation, while extremely thin in the orthogonal plane.
References
References
- Duarte, F. J.. (2000-05-01). "Newton, Prisms, and the “Opticals” of Tunable Lasers". Optics and Photonics News.
- Duarte, Frank J.. (2003). "Tunable Laser Optics". Elsevier Academic Press.
This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page.
Ask Mako anything about Beam expander — get instant answers, deeper analysis, and related topics.
Research with MakoFree with your Surf account
Create a free account to save articles, ask Mako questions, and organize your research.
Sign up freeThis content may have been generated or modified by AI. CloudSurf Software LLC is not responsible for the accuracy, completeness, or reliability of AI-generated content. Always verify important information from primary sources.
Report