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How to Build a Beam Expander

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How to Build a Beam Expander

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Beam expansion or reduction is a common application requirement in most labs using lasers or light sources and optics. There are many ready made beam expanders available on the market, but often they are not available in the required expansion ratio or spectral range. And, for students, or those working within a tight budget, the plug and play solution may not be the answer. Luckily, building a beam expander from off-the-shelf components is easily accomplished and can be fit into most budgets. The quality of the output is dependant only on the input beam and the component optics used. To create a beam expansion unit, it is important to know a few simple optical relationships, as well as what your input to output beam diameter ratio requirement is. Simple beam expanders, sometimes referred to as telescopes, in their most basic forms generally consist of two lenses. The first lens should have a diameter larger than the maximum expected input diameter of the incoming light source. For example, if the diameter of the incoming beam is 10mm, a 12mm diameter lens will do a nice job with a little room to spare. The input beam is assumed to be collimated.

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