3-10x Beam Expanders

A laser beam expander is designed to increase the diameter of a collimated input laser beam to a larger collimated output beam. Beam expanders are used in applications such as laser scanning, interferometry, and remote sensing. Contemporary laser beam expander designs are afocal systems that developed from well-established optical telescope fundamentals. In such systems, the object rays, located at infinity, enter parallel to the optical axis of the internal optics and exit parallel to them as well. This means that there is no focal length to the entire system.

Our Laser Beam Expanders provide a low cost means of focusing and shaping laser beams with a high degree of accuracy. These Galilean beam expanders incorporate the highly regarded Tropel optical designs with improved adjustability and mounting. They are ideal for applications in which a small spot must be formed at some distance from the laser, or where the collimation range must be extended for illumination, or for alignment of distant objects. Wavefront distortion of less than λ/4 guarantees a minimum focused spot size even at long ranges. The lenses are antireflection coated with magnesium fluoride optimized for 350-1100 nm, yielding transmission of over 98%.

Features of Jetlasers Beam Expanders

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These Galilean Beam Expanders provide an ideal solution for expanding or reducing beam diameters. Beam expanders are commonly used to reduce divergence. Another common use is to expand the beam and then focus with another lens to take advantage of a reduction in spot size. These beam expanders have all been designed to minimize the telescope length, minimize the introduced wavefront error (<λ/4), and provide diffraction-limited performance (for <Ø1 mm input).