Low-cost CO2 laser beam profile monitor
Abstract
Construction and performance of a low-cost easy-to-build CO2 laser beam profile monitor are described. Its specifications correspond to those of commercial devices. In this monitor a small slit covered by a temperature dependent fluorescent surface is imaged on a photodiode. A rotating mirror scans the spatial intensity distribution over the slit. This allows one to avoid an expensive photodiode array. The signal-to-noise ratio is improved by repetitive sampling with a low-cost digital processing unit. The dynamic range of measurement is 7 to 1 and the linearity is 10% within this range.
- Publication:
-
Review of Scientific Instruments
- Pub Date:
- November 1984
- DOI:
- 10.1063/1.1137657
- Bibcode:
- 1984RScI...55.1777W
- Keywords:
-
- Carbon Dioxide Lasers;
- Laser Outputs;
- Monitors;
- Performance Tests;
- Low Cost;
- Signal Processing;
- Signal To Noise Ratios;
- Lasers and Masers