SPIE Sensors & Imaging 2024: PowerPhotonic launches new Variable Beam Shaper

17 Sep 2024

Device offers benefits to laser welding, additive manufacturing, and surface treatment sectors.

PowerPhotonic, a developer of freeform, wafer-scale optics, this week launched a new Variable Beam Shaper, while exhibiting at SPIE Sensors and Imaging exhibition and conference, in Edinburgh, UK.

The Variable Beam Shaper enables a single mode, Gaussian laser beam to be focused into one of three different output profiles; a Gaussian spot; a flat top circular spot; or a ring-shaped spot. Selection and tuning of the desired spot profile, and the smooth transition between profiles, is achieved by simply adjusting the input laser beam diameter.

Dr. Stephen Kidd, Head of Sales and Marketing, commented, “Our beam shaper is a simpler and more cost-effective solution for variable beam shaping than currently exists. It enables new market opportunities which were previously cost-prohibitive.”

He continued, “Its initial design targets applications in laser welding, additive manufacturing, and laser surface treatment. These include hydrophobic surfaces which repel water and other fluids. In medical applications, this can be used to create anti-microbial and anti-bacterial surfaces which are intrinsically clean.”

The beam shaper is made from fused silica with low loss and low scatter surfaces. These allow high-power handling from CW or pulsed lasers in the fs-ps-ns regime.

Conference presentation

The company also presented an invited paper on coherent beam combining during the associated conference on Monday. The conference has two symposia: sensor and photonic technologies for imaging and monitoring the Earth’s atmosphere; and photonics for homeland security, defense, and counterterrorism.

The paper, entitled 61 Channel High-Power, Coherent Beam Combination Module was delivered by Callum Wreford, the company’s Head of Product Development, who is responsible for high-power optics in defence and macro-machining applications.

Dr. Kidd, added, “Our high-power, Coherent Beam Combiner optics module enables market-leading levels of performance in laser directed energy systems. Precise design and manufacture of the optical elements, including beam shapers, aberration correctors and phase flatteners are key.

“These covert light from end-capped fibers into an array of collimated and shaped beams which then coherently combine to produce levels of power far greater than traditional, gaussian beam systems. The module, described in the paper, has 61 input channels, each with an optical power handling capability exceeding of 3 kW and class-leading combiner efficiency.

“The presentation explained how our technology can minimize the impact of mechanical and thermal disturbance to enable a stable, high-power, high-quality, low-divergence output beam. It also showed how the module is designed to replace traditional, multi-part solutions.”