Diffractive Optical Elements for Beam Shaping

Top Hat Beam Shapers

A Top Hat DOE produces a so-called Top Hat beam profile in the working plane with a steep slope from a Gaussian-shaped beam. The beam profile can have almost any type of cross section, round or square are the most popular.

 

Stable Top Beam Shapers

The Stable Top element has the same function as a Top Hat element. However, the optimized design allows for larger tolerances of the incident beam (quality, size, and position). Small sidebands and narrow fluctuations in intensity can be observed in the center of the beam profile.

 

Homogenizers/Diffusers

Homogenizers – also known as diffusers – smoothen the cross section.

These elements are commonly used in medical applications such as hair or tattoo removal. In such applications, it is crucial to avoid hot spots to prevent the burning of skin.

 

Elliptical Diffusers

Elliptical diffusers function similar to homogenizers. The beam components perpendicularly stacked on top of one another have different fan angles. This results in a homogeneous elliptical beam cross section in the far field.

 

Vortex Lenses

A vortex lens is used to convert a planar wavefront into a helicoid (spiral-shaped) wavefront. Through this rotation, the wavefronts cancel each other out at the center. This transformation occurs through a spiral-shaped structure on a planar substrate.

 

Custom-Made Optics

Using a plane diffractive element, symmetrical and asymmetrical beam profiles can be created.