Aspheric Laser Beam Reshaper Applications Guide

The Aspheric Laser Beam Reshaper, or reshaper for short, is a pair of plano-convex aspheric lenses which perform a deterministic geometrical transformation of the optical laser beam which is directed into it. This transformation takes the form of a radially dependent magnification, which has the effect of redistributing the input laser beam power as a function of radius in the reshaper’s output aperture. Although the mathematics of the transformation are very general, and allow many possible combinations of input and output beam profiles, the current system has been designed for a Gaussian profile and specific beam waist at the input, which maps to a “flat top” power distribution at the output. This transformation is shown in Figure 1, and described in detail in Reference 1. The purpose of these application notes is to explain the nature of this transformation and to guide the user of a reshaper in setting one up and getting optimum performance from it.