Abstract

Diffractive optical elements offer many advantages over conventional optical elements in high power laser systems; e.g., focussing beam sampling and splitting elements.¹ Typical benefits include the ability to perform multiple optical functions with one element, high laser damage thresholds,² reduced nonlinear phase retardation and the possibility of mass production using VLSI fabrication techniques. Here, we present the design procedure and experimental results for a 16- level on-axis near-field Gaussian to flat-top generator with low fidelity and an harmonic separation filter for purging 3λ₀ and 2λ ₀ wavelengths from a laser beam to leave only the desired λ₀.

© 1994 IEEE