High-Power NanoScan Laser Beam Profiler

Use to profile CO2 lasers, Q-switched and other high power lasers

Details

Photon’s High-Power NanoScan can measure focused CO2 laser beams up to 5 kilowatts. The High-Power NanoScan is equipped with a pyroelectric detector with copper slits and drum. A cooling fan mounted on the scan head body provides additional heat management. With the new "peak connect" algorithm and the software controlled variable scan speed, the High-Power NanoScan is ideal for measuring lasers operating with pulse width modulation (PWM) power control. Measurement of Q-switched lasers and other higher frequency pulsed lasers is also possible using this feature.

What Can be Measured?

Measuring high-power beams can be tricky. The lasers have the potential to damage the scan head, and any reflected light can be dangerous to both the operator and the surroundings. The High-Power NanoScan can measure these beams because it uses a combination of highly reflective components with high thermal dissipation capability. It is important to manage the reflected beam so that it neither reenters the laser cavity nor sends stray beams into the surrounding area. The scanhead is designed to make short duration measurements to avoid excessive heating of components. The head should be only in the incident beam for 10 to 60 seconds depending on the power levels to prevent excessive heating of the components. The High-Power NanoScan scan head has been shown to be able to handle power densities of 3.2MWcm-2 at 10.6µm, the power density of a 200µm beam at 1kW. At the shorter wavelengths of the other common industrial lasers, Nd:YAG and DPSS, the upper limits are a little less, due to the slightly lower reflectivity of the components at wavelengths around 1000nm. Visible and UV lasers can also be measured, but these will have lower limits yet.

Measuring Pulsed Lasers

The actual energy-per-pulse is an important consideration for pulsed beams. Individual pulses may damage the scan head, even when the average power falls within the safe region of the operating space chart. For this reason it is necessary to understand the limits in Joules for lasers that use pulsing to increase the delivered energy, most commonly the Q-Switched laser. PWM lasers can be treated as CW for power/energy considerations.

Specifications

High-Power NanoScan Specifications
Detector Type	Power Range	Wavelength	Aperture	Slits	Scanhead Size
Pyroelectric	~1W - ~5kW upper limit dependent on wavelength	190nm - >100µm	9mm	5µm	100mm
Pyroelectric Large Aperture	~1W - ~5kW upper limit dependent on wavelength	190nm - >100µm	20mm	10µm	100mm

Specifications subject to change without notice

System Requirements

Pentium IV 2GHz or better processor
1GB of RAM
24-bit color graphics card with hardware accelerator
MS Windows 2000 Professional (font selection must be set to "Normal"), XP Professional, or Windows Vista (32-bit only)
CD-ROM drive
1 PCI slot available or 1 USB 2.0 slot
At least 50MB free space on the hard disk
Microsoft compatible mouse or trackball
SVGA or better (1280 x 1024 resolution)

Operating Space (Range) Charts

λ 3µm-100µm λ 700nm-3µm λ 190nm-700nm Damage Thresholds

Software

NanoScan integrated software operates on the latest Microsoft Windows Platforms and the system is available with either PCI or USB 2.0 hardware interfaces. The software reports laser beam parameters beam width, pointing, divergence and more for up to 32 beams. Beam width can be determined by 4-sigma, 1/e2, FWHM and any parameter can be charted using time statistics.

Dual-Axis Profiles and Stats-1

Dual-Axis Profiles and Stats-2

Pointing Window with Options and Tools; Stats in back

Power Window and Stats

2D View of Beam Profile

3D View of Beam Profile

Time Charts and Stats

2D and 3D Options Menu

NanoScan M2 Wizard Software Screens

The M2 Wizard View is an interactive program for determining the "times diffraction limit" factor M2 by the Rayleigh Method. The M2 Wizard View prompts and guides the user through a series of measurements and data entries required for calculating M2. The entered and calculated values are displayed in each step of the Wizard.