Laser Beam Divergence Measurement

The m 2 factor compares the actual shape of the beam to that of an ideal gaussian beam.

Laser beam divergence measurement.

The beam divergence defines how much the beam spreads out over increasing distance from the optical aperture. In laser diodes beam divergence is specified with two values because of the presence of astigmatism see diodes vs. Beam divergence is defined in the far field where the beam divergence is constant. You know that bell shaped curve telling you that most of the beam energy is located at the center of the beam along the propagation axis.

Dataray offers a full range of iso 11146 compliant beam profilers both camera and scanning slit based which provide multiple methods of measuring beam divergence. By design circular laser beams usually possess a gaussian shaped energy density distribution or irradiance from the center of the beam to the edges. Simple beam propagation measurements on ion lasers spie vol. The beam divergence of a laser beam is a measure for how fast the beam expands far from the beam waist.

Beam divergence is defined by the full angle. The beam divergence of a laser beam is a measure for how fast the beam expands far from the beam waist i e in the so called far field. In electromagnetics especially in optics beam divergence is an angular measure of the increase in beam diameter or radius with distance from the optical aperture or antenna aperture from which the beam emerges. The focal length divergence measurement method the focal length divergence measurement method is based upon the beam width of a focused beam s spot size and the focal length of the focusing optic.

It is usually defined as the derivative of the beam radius with respect to the axial position in the far field i e in a distance from the beam waist which is much larger than the rayleigh length. The focal length divergence method provides a means for finding the far field beam divergence at any point in the beam propagation path. A low beam divergence can be important for applications such as pointing or free space optical communications. Laser beam divergence measurement is all about beam size.

For an electromagnetic beam beam divergence is the angular measure of the increase in the radius or diameter with distance from the optical aperture as the beam emerges. In this case the orientation of the beam divergence needs to be. Standard for the measurement of beam widths beam divergence and propagation factors proposal for a working draft iso tc 172 sc 9 wg 1 april 29 1992. This definition yields a divergence half angle.

For laser beams for which the second order moments of intensity beam width and divergence can be determined the beam propagation ratio m 2 is often used to characterize beam quality.