Abstract

The development of high-power CuBr lasers for micromachining and other technology applications requires an investigation and control of the beam quality of these lasers. An important laser system property is the laser power density, P_s obtained after focusing the output radiation. It is equal to where P_out is the average laser output power, θ is the divergence of die laser output power and F is the focus length of the output focusing optical system. It is clear that P_s is proportional to the quantity P_out/θ² which is an inherent property of the light emitted from a laser. This quantity represents the laser power spatial intensity because θ² is actually the solid angle in which laser output is concentrated. This laser power spatial intensity can be quantified in W.mrad⁻², for example. The inverse - square dependence of laser power spatial intensity on the divergence of laser output power means that higher laser power density can be more easily obtained by improving the beam divergence. Thus, a serious decrease in laser beam divergence should sharply' reduce the demand for too high laser output.

© 1998 IEEE