PowerPhotonic, designer and manufacturer of freeform, wafer-scale optics, now offers a standard option of its Bessel Beam Generator for customers to order. The standard Bessel Beam Generator was developed by PowerPhotonic, with a beam profile optimised for the consistent processing and precise cleaving of glass and other transparent materials. Offering a standard product is a new approach for PowerPhotonic, who usually develop custom Bessel beams for a wide range of applications. The standard Bessel beam is designed for cleaving and cutting applications, however PowerPhotonic’s custom Bessel beams have been used in a wide range of applications, from free space communications to medical imaging.
What is a Bessel beam?
The Bessel Beam Generator is an advanced, refractive, freeform optical element designed to convert a high-power, single mode Gaussian beam into a Bessel beam. The Bessel beam has uniform intensity along its propagation direction which, when paired with customer-supplied de-magnification optics, produces a high-performance, flat-topped (in the beam propagation direction), laser beam profile. The beam profile has a high aspect ratio of central lobe or spot size to beam length. PowerPhotonic’s standard product has a uniform intensity profile of around 40mm in the beam’s propagation direction, or optical axis. This length is reduced with customer’s demagnification optics, and is suitable for cleaving thick, transparent materials.
Why offer a standard Bessel Beam Generator product?
Dr. Stephen Kidd, Head of Sales and Marketing at PowerPhotonic, explains, “PowerPhotonic chose to offer a standard Bessel Beam Generator optical element so that customers entering transparent material cleaving and processing markets have a standard solution available with a short lead time. The standard Bessel Beam Generator is optimised to consistently process and precisely cleave glass and other transparent materials.
“PowerPhotonic also provides custom variants of the Bessel Beam Generator for a range of specific, performance needs and applications such as “self-healing” of free space communications links; enhanced cold atom trapping; and improved ophthalmic, Optical Coherence Tomography (OCT).”
PowerPhotonic Bessel Beam Generator benefits.
The uniform profile of PowerPhotonic’s Bessel beam improves the efficiency of non-linear processing to provide consistent, optimised and precise cutting, cleaving and modification of thick, transparent materials. Its extended focal range allows clean and controlled cuts and modifications, whilst its high-power handling enables increased processing speeds and cleave quality.
The Bessel Beam Generator delivers unmatched performance, compared to conventional axicon solutions, which often suffer from having a significant variation of intensity along the optical axis. Its central lobe size to beam length aspect ratio, is much higher than most competitors; it allows high-power handling; it enables increased processing speeds; and it delivers superior cleaving quality.
The PowerPhotonic Bessel Beam Generator can be ordered as a standard part with a short lead time and has a datasheet available online. Its Bessel profile is optimised for glass and transparent material cleaving and processing and its key specifications include an incident power shaping efficiency of over 95%; a flatness factor over 0.9; and an LIDT of greater than 0.59J/cm2.
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For the Bessel Beam Generator datasheet read here