North Logan, UT - Ophir Photonics Group, a Newport Corp. brand, has release the newest version of the Photon M2-1780, a laser beam profiling system that measures beam quality in real-time. The M2-1780 automatically measures the M2 beam propagation ratio and all associated ISO 11146 parameters instantaneously, at video rates over 20Hz.
The M2-1780 is a CCD camera-based system that works with CW and pulsed lasers down to single shot rates. The CCD is sensitive to wavelengths from ~250 to 1100nm. This compact system automatically measures with NIST-traceable accuracy to better than 2%; this translates to M2 measurements with accuracy to -5%.
The M2-1780 uses ten reflective surfaces - provided by precisely aligned quartz wedges - to divide the laser beam caustic into ten slices. It then simultaneously focuses them on the CCD detector. This allows the M2 and other propagation parameters to be determined instantly in real-time. The CCD sensor is divided into ten sectors and the beam is aligned such that each beam measurement position is in one of these boxes. Once aligned, integrated software reports the parameters for each frame the CCD acquires.
This makes it possible to make real-time adjustments to the laser and watch the results as direct feedback. The M2-1780 works in conjunction with Photon's FireWire BeamPro Acquisition and Analysis software.