Process and quality control drives the majority of today’s industries and as a result this has created a demand for effective and efficient tools which will help them to see, measure, and define various aspects of research and industrial processes.
All laser operators and end users clearly understand the importance of fine tuning the outputs of their lasers in order to understand and optimize the end result within their process. They also understand that because lasers are very dynamic and in a constant state of flux, variations in modal distribution can and do occur. Everything from process inputs to environmental conditions tend to impact modal distributions. As a result, we are often asked the following question:
“What type of tool does Ophir have that will allow me to collect real time qualitative and/or quantitative data about our beam or light source regardless of modal structure – i.e., single or multimode?”
In order to address this, Ophir-Spiricon developed a suite of camera-based profiling systems. These systems are relatively easy to use and allow the end user to evaluate the behavior of their source or target sample in real time – modal distribution, irradiance, power and energy density, etc. Each profiling system is comprised of a camera and software package (varies depending on which camera system is chosen).
This overview will focus specifically on a function within Ophir’s BeamGage® software, the primary engine that drives the laser beam profiling system.* There are two levels of BeamGage software available: Standard and Professional. Three distinct features differentiate BeamGage PRO from BeamGage Standard:
Partitioning Custom Calculations Automation Interface
In order to fully analyze a multimode source, we suggest the use of the partitioning feature contained within BeamGage PRO. This provides the necessary functionality allowing the user to isolate and fully evaluate various user defined regions of interest (ROI) for any modal array or chosen target source. Partitions essentially subdivide the camera image into separate regions, called partitions, and compute separate beam results for each partition.
When using partitioning, the results of independent partitions can be compared one to another; results are displayed either in the results window or delta centroid table. The results window can only display the computational results for one partition at a time, regardless of how many partitions have been established.
Common applications pertaining to partitioning include comparing the alignment of multiple beam spots or sample cells to either a fixed set of spatial coordinates and/or to each other. This is accomplished by using the Delta Centroid and Delta Peak tables. The following is an example of a multimodal beam that was generated using the BeamMaker® function, found in all levels of BeamGage software, and the partition feature.
Ultra-High Velocity