Faster alignment of laser systems with highest efficiency

Modern laser systems such as solid-state or femtosecond lasers – as used in micro structuring, laser dicing or medical applications like LASIK – consist of complex optical systems whose alignment and characerization requires expert knowledge and considerable experience. The Shack-Hartmann wavefront sensor SHSLab excels at such tasks due to its high speed of up to 30Hz, excellent unreferenced accuracy of few nm RMS, precision and robustness, and thus simplifies the workflow. In addition, the wavefront measurement and Zernike analysis allow a quantitative assessment of the laser beam quality post adjustment, providing information on beam collimation and beam parameteres incl. M², too.

The extreme measurement range of the Optocraft SHSLab wavefront sensors is a clear benefit for manufacturers of laser-optical systems: a wavefront measurement can be carried out even when the initial state is strongly misaligned. The results indicate the direction for the following alignment steps. The process can be further optimized with additional knowledge of the system behaviour, e.g. from a simulation, thereby minimizing the number of loops.