Efficient beamshaper homogenizer design combining diffractive optical elements, microlens array and random phase plate

We propose a new approach that combines original techniques to achieve a very efficient laser beam homogenizer and shaper. The three retained concepts are microlens array, random phase plate and diffractive optical elements. The performance of usual homogenizers are improved in terms of efficiency, homogenization and shaping abilities. We report on the theory and the development of such diffractive beamshaper homogenizers. Finally, an application concerning laser to fibre coupling is described.

[1]  J. Allebach,et al.  Synthesis of digital holograms by direct binary search. , 1987, Applied optics.

[2]  G. Swanson.  Binary Optics Technology: The Theory and Design of Multi-Level Diffractive Optical Elements , 1989 .

[3]  Deanna M. Pennington,et al.  Implementation and performance of beam smoothing on 10 beams of the Nova laser , 1997, Other Conferences.

[4]  Graeme Scott,et al.  Excimer laser processing of aerospace alloys , 1993, Other Conferences.

[5]  R. Gerchberg.  A practical algorithm for the determination of phase from image and diffraction plane pictures , 1972 .

[6]  N Yoshikawa,et al.  Phase optimization of a kinoform by simulated annealing. , 1994, Applied optics.

[7]  Jagjit Sidhu,et al.  Excimer laser beam shaping and material processing using diffractive optics , 1997, International Symposium on High Power Laser Systems and Applications.

[8]  Frank Wyrowski,et al.  Diffractive optical elements: iterative calculation of quantized, blazed phase structures , 1990 .

[9]  A A Sawchuk,et al.  Design of diffractive optical elements with optimization of the signal-to-noise ratio and without a dummy area. , 1997, Applied optics.

[10]  Gary J. Swanson,et al.  Developments In Fabrication Of Binary Optical Elements , 1983, Optics & Photonics.

[11]  C. Danson,et al.  Binary phase zone-plate arrays for laser-beam spatial-intensity distribution conversion. , 1993, Applied optics.

[12]  X. Deng,et al.  Uniform illumination of large targets using a lens array. , 1986, Applied optics.

[13]  A. J. Morgan,et al.  Random phase plates for beam smoothing on the Nova laser. , 1993, Applied optics.

[14]  Kunioki Mima,et al.  Random Phasing of High-Power Lasers for Uniform Target Acceleration and Plasma-Instability Suppression , 1984 .