Photon/Ophir Photonics (a Newport brand), North Logan, UT has released newest version of its NanoScan scanning slit beam profiler, used for profiling CO2 beams in material processing applications. The key enhancement to NanoScan v2 is an enhanced graphical user interface (GUI) that supports Microsoft Windows' ribbon toolbar; adding concealable ribbon toolbars to dockable and floatable windows helps the software fit user displays from small laptops to multimonitor desktops.
The NIST-calibrated laser beam profiler uses scanning-slit technology to measure most high-power beams without complicated attenuation schemes. With the new GUI, "users can see their laser beams as never before," noted Gary Wagner, GM at Ophir Photonics (US). (Ophir bought Photon Inc. in May 2010.)
Using moving slits -- an ISO Standard scanning aperture technique -- NanoScan v2 can measure beam sizes from μm to cm at beam powers from μW to kWs without attenuation. Detector options (silicon, germanium, and pyroelectric technologies) allow measurement at wavelengths from the UV to the far IR. It can simultaneously measure multiple beams and offers an optional power meter for scanheads with silicon and germanium detectors. Profiles are acquired with 12-bit digitization, and analyzed for real-time updates up to the maximum scanhead scan rate of 20Hz. Spatial sampling resolution can be as small as 5.7 nm. (Here's the product data sheet, and here's a video of NanoScan in action.)
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