{"id":288,"date":"2011-02-14T12:22:58","date_gmt":"2011-02-14T12:22:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ophiropt.com\/blog\/laser-measurement\/?p=288"},"modified":"2018-10-04T08:50:11","modified_gmt":"2018-10-04T08:50:11","slug":"288","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ophiropt.com\/blog\/288\/","title":{"rendered":"What\u2019s M-Squared and Why Should I Care?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Here\u2019s a surprising statistic: Nine out of ten laser technicians have no idea what M<sup>2<\/sup> is.<\/p>\n<p>Most laser beam characteristics are easy to put your finger on.\u00a0 Qualities like laser beam width, position and divergence angle are generally known to those that work with lasers<!--more--> \u2013 and if not, can be learned quickly.\u00a0 M<sup>2<\/sup> is a little more obscure and abstract.\u00a0 What part of the laser beam can I point to and say, \u201cAha! See that? That\u2019s the M<sup>2<\/sup> in action.\u201d?\u00a0 That\u2019s why I\u2019d like to provide you with this <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ophiropt.com\/en\/n\/what-is-m-squared\">short refresher on M<sup>2<\/sup><\/a> \u2013 what it is, why it\u2019s actually quite important to the laser operating quality and how you can measure it.<\/p>\n<p>Wondering where I got the fun fact from?\u00a0 I made it up, of course.\u00a0 But seriously, how many people do you think know what it is?\u00a0 I mean it.\u00a0 Let me know; I\u2019d love to hear what you think!<\/p>\n<p><em><span style=\"color: #808080;\">This article was rewritten on September 10, 2012.\u00a0 We have been going over our old posts to make sure they stay accurate and relevant.\u00a0 Any feedback is welcome, as always.<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>You might also like to read:\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n<p><a title=\"Is Your Laser\u2019s Beam Profile Shaped Correctly for Your Application?\" href=\"\/?p=82\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Is Your Laser\u2019s Beam Profile Shaped Correctly for Your Application?<\/a><\/p>\n<p><a title=\"Driving Blind: Why the Need for Industrial Laser Beam Profiling?\" href=\"\/?p=299\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Driving Blind: Why the Need for Industrial Laser Beam Profiling?<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Here\u2019s a surprising statistic: Nine out of ten laser technicians have no idea what M2 is. Most laser beam characteristics [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[16,22,23,25,26,28,29,30,33,34,42,52,53,54,64,67,70,71,72],"ophirposttype":[],"class_list":["post-288","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-laser-beam-analysis","tag-beam-profiling","tag-co2","tag-divergent","tag-excimer","tag-fiber-laser","tag-high-energy","tag-high-power","tag-high-power-density","tag-ir","tag-large-beam","tag-laser-diode","tag-led","tag-low-power","tag-m-squared","tag-pulsed","tag-small-beam","tag-thz","tag-uv","tag-visible-light"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.2 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>What\u2019s M-Squared and Why Should I Care? - Ophir Photonics<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Here\u2019s a surprising statistic: Nine out of ten laser technicians have no idea what M2 is. Most laser beam characteristics are easy to put your finger on.\u00a0\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.ophiropt.com\/blog\/288\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"What\u2019s M-Squared and Why Should I Care? - Ophir Photonics\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Here\u2019s a surprising statistic: Nine out of ten laser technicians have no idea what M2 is. 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