Technical information Beam Expander

LINOS beam expanders are optical systems for beam forming used in laser material processing. They can vary the diameter and the divergence of a laser beam and allow optimization of focus diameter, focus position and beam propagation.

Qioptiq offers standard versions of manual and motorized variable beam expanders made of fused silica and/or optical glass. LINOS Beam Expanders are optimally employed in conjunction with LINOS F-Theta-Ronar lenses for applications including:

• Laser structuring of foils

• Laser scribing of ceramic substrates

• Cutting of solar cells

• Micro drilling of sheet metal

• Marking of diverse materials with encodings

All LINOS beam expanders can also be implemented in reverse mode as beam reducers.

Manual version

Continuous magnification between 2x and 8x are available. In addition Qioptiq offers manual variable beam expanders with fused-silica entrance lenses for higher laser resistance.

The back focal length of F-Theta-Ronar or Focus- Ronar lenses can be modified by changing the divergence of the incoming laser beam. Fine focusing of the beam expander compensates the focal length tolerances of other optical components as well as divergence of the laser source.

Handling

Zoom and focusing scales of the LINOS manual beam expanders are set according to product specific graphs. The expansion factor is adjusted by turning the focusing ring and zoom ring. To focus the beam expansion, only the focusing ring should be adjusted.

The beam expander is mounted on surface A. Please Take care that the laser beam is centered on the entrance lens and parallel to the optical axis of the beam expander (x/y tilt adjustment).

Beam expander with a variable expansion factor 2x to 8x for 1064 nm.

Motorized version

The motorized beam expanders of second generation are precise and easy to integrate. They are used in automatic production processes or in application laboratories. The controller is integrated into the beam expander.

For high-power or short-pulse laser applications full fused-silica designs are available with excellent transmission and thermal resistance performance. The special coating with low absorption and high transmission for these fused-silica beam expanders covers for the continuous variable magnification 1x ...4x and  2x ...8x the complete wavelength ranges of 340-360 nm, 515-540 nm and 1030-1080 nm.

The customer can select between two electrical interfaces (SubD9/ RS232 or Phoenix Contact/RS232).

Software

The Windows™-based software developed with LabView allows an easy control of the motorized beam expander. After initialization, the desired expansion is achieved by moving the two independent stepper motors. The lens positions for the magnification ranges of 1x-4x or 2x-8x are listed for each motorized beam expander type in provided tables. Ten individual pre-sets can be stored.
The beam expander can also be directly controlled under other operating systems via the serial interface (e.g. terminal program). All serial interface commands are listed in the manual.