// Showcase

Beam Shaping Optics Verification

A beam expander turns the thin laser beam into a wide, parallel bundle, and a beam reducer scales it back down at the end to the size of a wavefront sensor.

Photonics & Laser Sensors & Metrology

Photonics & Laser Sensors & Metrology

01Starting point

A beam expander turns the thin laser beam into a wide, parallel bundle, and a beam reducer scales it back down at the end to the size of a wavefront sensor. Four such assemblies were already fully designed, for two wavelengths. In theory, it was just a matter of building to the drawing. The catch: a wavefront sensor can't tell whether a distorted wavefront comes from the test object or from its own optics upstream. A fault in the feed optics looks exactly the same there as a defect in the part.

02Approach

Instead of just building it, we ran all four assemblies through the computer first – simulating the beam path exactly to the drawing, with every lens position as planned. The benchmark was the effective focal length: for an afocal assembly, that has to run practically to infinity. Where it didn't, we calculated the correct lens position – and then checked how much play the mechanics could even tolerate.

03Result

Two errors came to light that would otherwise only have shown up after the build or even during measurement – one big enough to need a new mount, the other so small it would have passed as a baffling measurement error. And the tolerance study showed something else too: fine adjustment per lens isn't needed at all. Result – simply built, robust mounts instead of expensive precision mechanics, times four.

What's inside

Four fully calculated, corrected beam-shaping assemblies for two wavelengths – with lens positions that actually work, not just look right on paper. Plus a tolerance study as the basis for mount accuracy, and an alignment concept that cleverly shifts fine adjustment into later calibration instead of building it into the mechanics.

And what happened next

It was built to the corrected positions, with no axis adjustment at all – final fine alignment has happened laterally ever since, as part of calibration. The before-and-after comparison has since become the project's go-to example for calculating optical assemblies before manufacturing, instead of trusting the drawing – even when it looks clean at first glance.

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