Laser Beam Detector Using Light Guide and Diffuser
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current methods for determining laser beam properties, especially in high-power and brilliant laser systems, face challenges such as limited accuracy, spatial resolution, and compatibility issues, particularly when measuring moving laser beams or those with high power densities, as conventional sensors are often damaged by high brilliance and cannot accurately assess beam parameters like diameter and profile without altering the beam's properties.
Innovation Solution
An apparatus and method utilizing a detector arrangement with light guides and diffusing structures that allow for relative movement between the laser beam and the detector, enabling the measurement of laser beam properties by scattering and transporting radiation to a light-sensitive sensor, which records and evaluates a temporally varying signal to determine beam parameters like diameter and profile, even in large working areas or with moving beams.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Measurement precision
If conventional pixel-based sensors are used for measuring high power density laser beams, then beam splitting, attenuation and/or imaging is required, but the measured quantities are no longer explicitly related to the desired quantities directly in the beam and the apparatus becomes complex
Solution Approach 1:
The invention extracts only the necessary measurement function from complex optical systems. By using a simple pinhole aperture and a single pixel sensor instead of beam splitters, attenuators, and imaging lenses, it directly measures beam properties without intermediate optical elements that complicate the apparatus and introduce measurement errors.
Solution Approach 2:
Instead of using complex optical systems to image the beam onto a sensor, the invention inverts the approach by placing a simple pinhole at the beam location and detecting the transmitted light directly with a pixel sensor. This reverses the traditional measurement paradigm and eliminates the need for complex imaging optics.
2Measurement precision
If conventional pixel-based sensors are used for measuring high power density laser beams, then beam splitting, attenuation and/or imaging is required, but the sensor is damaged by high brilliance
Solution Approach 1:
The invention removes the sensor from the high power density environment by using a pinhole aperture to spatially filter the beam. Only a tiny fraction of the total beam power passes through the pinhole to reach the sensor, protecting it from damage while still providing accurate beam property measurements.
Solution Approach 2:
The pinhole aperture serves as an intermediary element between the high power laser beam and the sensitive pixel sensor. It selectively transmits a small portion of the beam energy while blocking the majority, thus mediating the interaction to protect the sensor from high brilliance damage.
3Productivity
If the laser beam is scanned faster to shorten production time, then productivity increases, but measurement accuracy decreases due to movement
Solution Approach 1:
The invention replaces complex mechanical scanning systems with a stationary pinhole aperture and electronic detection. The simplified mechanical configuration reduces measurement uncertainties associated with fast scanning movements while maintaining high productivity through efficient single-point measurements.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
This approach allows for accurate determination of laser beam parameters with high precision and compatibility with high-power beams, enabling measurement in large areas and during movement, overcoming previous limitations in accuracy and spatial resolution.
Implementation Method 1
The at least two light-diffusing structures are configured for scattering a part of laser beam, impinging on the light-diffusing structures, in an angular range which is adapted for the transport of scattered laser radiation in the light-conducting region of the light guide to the light emitting surface
Implementation Method 2
A part of the scattered radiation is transported in a light-conducting region of the at least one light guide to a light-emitting surface of the at least one light guide
Implementation Method 3
The at least one light-sensitive sensor is configured to receive radiation, which is emitted from the light-emitting surface of the light guide
Data Source
AI summary
An apparatus for the determination of geometric parameters of a laser beam, such as, for example, the beam diameter or the focus diameter. The apparatus includes a device for the emission of a laser beam into an active region, a detector arrangement, which can be positioned in the active region, a device for the provision of a relative movement between the laser beam and the detector arrangement, and a device for the registration and evaluation of a temporally varying signal of the detector arrangement. The detector arrangement includes at least one light guide, at least two flight-diffusing structures, and at least one light-sensitive sensor. The light guide has a light-emitting surface and a light-conducting region, with an elongated shape. The at least two light-diffusing structures are essentially extended along two different directions.