For many years the heart of soul of Laser Beam Shaping has been industrial applications.  Over the last 15 years, laser beam shaping has evolved from bench top R&D to industrially hardened catalog beam shaping modules installed onto equipment routinely used with a 24/7 production environments.  Many new methods and techniques will be presented as well as long term lifetime data.


Beam shaping of line generators based on high power diode lasers to achieve high intensity and uniformity levels 

Paper 7062-33  
Author(s): Andreas Bayer, Thomas Mitra, Lutz Aschke, LIMO-Lissotschenko Mikrooptik GmbH (Germany)

Abstract

We present a variable beam shaping concept for line generators based on high power diode lasers. This concept fulfils the requirements to enter new application fields like annealing, hardening and metallization of different materials: the power content along the narrow axis of the line, namely the peak intensity in combination with the beam shape, and the intensity homogeneity along the long axis. We show methods and outcomes to reduce inhomogeneities caused by diffraction effects and effects based on geometric optics.
We achieved a 13mm long and <100µm wide laser line with a peak intensity >100kW/cm² and uniformity >97%.

Laser beam interference and its applications in optical micromanipulation techniques (Invited Paper) 

Paper 7062-30  
Author(s): Pavel Zemánek, Tomas Cizmar, Martin Siler, Vítìzslav Karàsek, Petr Jakl, Jan Jezek, Oto Brzobohaty, Institute of Scientific Instruments (Czech Republic)

Abstract

A review of advanced optical micromanipulation techniques based on laser beam interference and developed by the authors will be presented. Counter- or co-propagating interfering non-diffracting beams are used to confine microobjects in thousands of optical traps and to deliver them over millimetre long distances. Interfering evanescent or Gaussian beams are used for optical sorting of micrometer or sub-micrometer scale objects without the fluid flow. 

Free form micro-optics enable uniform off-axis illumination and superposition of high power laser devices 

Paper 7062-29  
Author(s): Tanja Bizjak, Oliver Homburg, Andreas Bayer, Thomas Mitra, Lutz Aschke, LIMO-Lissotschenko Mikrooptik GmbH (Germany)

Abstract

Free form micro-optics can be manufactured in glass, semiconductors or crystals generating the appropriate beam profile and providing the advantages in laser applications, such as ablation, welding, soldering, cutting, drilling, laser annealing, micro-machining and deep-UV lithography. Each lens of the array can be designed individually and can also be shaped asymmetrically. The applications results of such monolithic arrays are presented for beam shaping of high power diode lasers. The generation of a homogeneous light field by a 100 W laser with off-axis illumination under an angle of 30°-50° is shown. A multi-kW line generator based on the superposition of over 50 diode laser bars under different illumination angles is demonstrated as well. Novel microoptical beam shapers in lithographic applications reduce the complexity of macrooptics in hyper-NA illumination systems.