Beam characteristics of fiber-based supercontinuum light sources with mirror-and lens-based beam collimators

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

1-1-2014

Abstract

Commercially available supercontinuum light sources that cover most of the solar spectrum are well suited for instrumentation, where a wellcollimated beam with wide spectral coverage is needed. Typically, the optical power is emitted from a single-mode photonic-crystal fiber and the output can either be collimated using a proprietary, permanently integrated, lens-based collimator or with a customer-provided, off-axis parabolic mirror. Here, we evaluate both approaches and conclude that, superior beam quality and collimation over the whole spectral range can be obtained with an off-axis parabolic mirror, however at the price of a more complex and bulky system requiring additional user alignment. © 2014 Optical Society of America.

Publication Title

Optics Express

Share

COinS