CHARACTERIZATION OF BEAM PROFILE FOR HIGH-POWER DIODE LASERS WITH APPLICATION TO LASER WELDING OF POLYMERS

摘要

This paper presents and compares the results of knife-edge and pinhole approaches for laser beam power profiling. A high-power diode laser, which is typically used for laser transmission welding (LTW) of thermoplastics, is characterized. Benefits of the knife-edge method are speed and simplicity. Its major drawback is that it does not provide details about the internal features of the three-dimensional (3-D) beam intensity distribution that is examined in depth by the pinhole method.