MEASUREMENT OF LASER BEAM PARAMETERS.

Abstract

The author states a beam emitted by a continuous wave (CW) laser can be characterised by three parameters: power, diameter, and intensity distribution. When using a laser with a pulsed output further information is required to describe the pulse parameters. The power of the beam is measured routinely on high power lasers used for materials processing. It is used as one of the variables for laser processes such as welding, cutting, surfacing, etc. , and also for the periodic fine adjustment of the laser where the resonator optics are aligned to give maximum power. As lasers become established as production machines for a range of materials processing applications, monitoring these parameters will become of increasing importance for process and quality control.