Adjustable Beam Splitters

D61-001

High power beam splitters are used to split a laser beam; they are applied just as often as mirrors or output couplers.
The challenge in producing these components is the very strict observance of the tolerances necessary to achieve exact results when splitting a beam. To split a laser beam into two partial beams of equal intensity, beam splitters are required that both reflect and transmit precisely 50% of the energy. Conventional production of such a dielectric layer has a tolerance of ± 3% or higher. In a worst case scenario the partial beams could exhibit an output power of 47 W and 53 W after split up of an original 100 W beam. With a special IBS coating, the tolerance can be reduced to just ± 1%.

Actively Adjustable Beam Splitters
In very challenging applications a laser user will want to avoid tolerances of even ± 1%. In addition, there are applications in which one ends up with different losses in each beam path after adjustment. In these cases the desire for a beam splitter that can be actively adjusted is large.

Variable Beam Splitters
For these applications, LASER COMPONENTS has designed a variable beam splitter that has a position-dependent reflection profile. By moving the beam splitter one can obtain a reflection value between 45% and 55% depending on the position. The values can be continuously adjusted. The curve depicted shows an exemplary reflection profile across the position.
The coating is produced using an IAD process; therefore, it does not exhibit a noteworthy drift. Due to the active adjustment, the laser beam cannot only be very precisely split, but it can be split without any absorption losses.

Further product information:
Partially Reflective Coating

Contact:

Contact Person:	Rainer Franke
Company:	Laser Components Germany GmbH
Address:	Werner-von-Siemens-Str. 15
ZIP / City:	82140 Olching
Phone:	+49 (0) 8142 2864-39
Fax:	+49 (0) 8142 2864-11
Email:	rainer.franke@lasercomponents.com