Lenses and Lasers Series (LLS)

This is a series about the interconnection between lenses and lasers. In this series of posts, we'll talk about lasers and the beams they generate, and how optical lenses enable laser beams do work in most laser applications.

The main focus (excuse the pun) of these posts is how to choose a lens for a particular laser application. For thousands of laser engineers choosing or designing lenses for their applications is one of their many job requirements. If you’re a mechanical engineer or an electrical engineer with only 2 semesters of University Physics, then choosing a lens to match your laser beam and application can be somewhat confusing. It doesn’t have to be!

Some notes before starting. The posts are not math intensive (maybe a little), but we will make use of an online optical design tool that will make designing and analyzing laser lenses fairly simple and straightforward. These posts will also be slanted towards high power lasers, their optics, and their applications.

Notes: Many of the images in these posts were generated using our own software and FRED Optical Engineering Software by Photon Engineering.

Up First:

LLS #1: Lenses and Lasers, A Necessary Connection

The unsung hero of the laser industry is the lens (slight hyperbole 😊). Today we can find a host of content on the internet about the pervasiveness of lasers. In fact, it would be safe to say that lasers have shaped our society as much as computers and cell phones. Without

Lenskit BlogGary Herrit