A Method to Determine the Ultrafast Laser Beams Spot Size

TL;DR

This paper derives and experimentally verifies equations to determine the spot size of ultrafast laser beams at the focus, enabling accurate measurement in complex setups using standard techniques.

Contribution

It introduces new equations relating beam waist at focus to variable spot size, validated both theoretically and experimentally for high peak power lasers.

Findings

Derived equations accurately predict beam waist at focus.

Experimental verification confirms the equations' validity.

Useful for estimating spot size in complex laser setups.

Abstract

From the standard TEM00 Gaussian beam profile equations, we have derived the equations for beam waist at lens focus as a function of variable spot size. In this process, we obtained two equations for beam waist and the validity of these equations is studied with respect to Rayleigh length. The physical validity of the equations has been theoretically checked and also experimentally verified with He-Ne laser at 632 nm. The derived equations are useful for the estimation of the spot size of high peak power lasers (those spot sizes less than few mm). In complicated experimental setup by inserting a beam splitter, we can walk out the some of the beam and the spot size of this beam at the particular position can be measured by normal methods (pinhole and knife-edge techniques). By using our derived equations we can know the spot size of the beam at any position in the experimental setup form the measured spot size.