The discovery of Rayleigh Scattering by 3rd Baron Rayleigh, John William Strutt, served an explanation of why the sky is blue during the daytime and different hues of orange, pink, and purple in the early morning hours and at dusk. But it was only recently that this phenomenon has been applied to the measurement of high-powered lasers. Only through the measurement of the laser source and laser system can the user of the laser fully understand its performance and then start to control the processes in which they are used. Key laser parameters which ensure a successful process include output power or energy at the work piece, spot size or beam waist size, spot size location (over time), in addition to M2 or Beam Parameter Product values. Since the beginning of the application of the highpowered laser, and with recent steady increases in continuous-wave power, measurement has proved to be more and more problematic. This paper will discuss how the signal of the laser produced from Rayleigh Scattering can put to rest any concerns by the laser user of damaging their laser measurement equipment. The high-power laser user can now obtain dynamic characteristic measurements, instantly from beam
Whether you're new to lasers or you've been working with them for some time, you may be wondering what all the fuss is over laser beam profiling. Why worry about the quality of the laser beam that you've just put into production? Or, if you think your process is humming along nicely, why fix what isn't broken? You might think that laser beam quality has more than likely been addressed at the research and development stage of the laser you have, or even at the manufacturing or integration stages of the system that you've received. This article shows the importance of laser beam profiling and how the user can benefit from it.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.