Articles

Measuring Small-Beam MFD Overcoming the Challenges

Derrick Peterman, PhD Ophir-Spiricon LLC

Small beams are used in many critical applications yet often they are not directly profiled. While obtaining good beam profiling data on beams under 10 μm has its challenges, they can be overcome with proven techniques.

Profiling beams under 10 μm in size is one of the more challenging beam profiling applications. There are numerous reasons for this, including the very small size. Focal plane arrays commonly used in beam profiling have pixel dimensions of 3 to 10 μm, which are too large to reasonably profile...

Oscilloscope Adapter for Ophir Pyroelectric Sensors Ophir P/N 7Z11012

Introduction
Ophir Pyroelectric Energy Sensors and Photodiode Energy Sensors can measure pulse energy from pico-Joules to 10's of Joules, and up to 25kHz pulse rates. They support pulse widths from nanoseconds or below, up to 20ms. They are compatible with most Ophir Meters and PC Interfaces, including the Nova II, Vega, StarLite, StarBright, Centauri, Juno and EA-1 meters.

Most of the time, measurements in digital format are adequate, either in the form of measurements displayed on a screen, or data logged...

“What’s This” function in BeamGage 6.8

Problem: The “What’s This” feature only opens to the first page of the manual in Adobe Ready XI.
Solution...

Using the built in photodiode trigger on the SP620U and SP503U cameras.

With the introduction of BeamGage the capability of using the built in photodiode trigger in the SP camera series is now available. However, some customers may not know how to use it or that they even had this capability.

With the recently released BeamGage version 5.4 this capability is now available. Some cameras may need to have their firmware upgraded where others just need to update to the latest version of BeamGage. To see if your camera has the latest firmware make sure you are using BeamGage 5.4 and connect your camera to the computer. Launch BeamGage and when it...

How to Use Water Cooled Ophir Sensors

Ophir water cooled sensors are designed to measure high powers in a relatively compact package. In order for the sensor to operate properly, the water flow rate, temperature and temperature stability have to be in the right range. For best performance of the sensor, the water flow rate should be the recommended rate. If the user system is not able to reach the recommended rate, then the minimum rate can be used and the sensor will meet spec but there may be some degradation of response time and linearity...

University Research Team Faces Challenges of Measuring Multiple Lasers

Dick Rieley , Field Sales Engineer III, Mid-Atlantic Region, Ophir-Spiricon

The scientific community is often faced with the requirement of testing, validating, or merely qualifying several laser sources planned for a particular project.. Such testing is needed to:

Ensure the laser source is performing up to the manufacturer’s specification
Diagnose the quality and measurement aspect of the resulting beam
Establish a baseline of the laser’s performance to be used against future measurements to determine if the laser has degraded or otherwise shifted in its performance.

This task puts a financial...

Reimaging UV Laser Beam Profiling

Kevin Kirkham, Sr. Manager, Product Development, Ophir-Spiricon

Ophir Photonics offers a number of solutions for profiling UV laser beams. Spot sizes from 0.15mm to over 25mm can be safely profiled without the risk of camera sensor damage or degradation. Laser beam analyzer accessories based on wavelength conversion materials permit spatial profile analysis of UV lasers with wavelength in the range of 193nm to 360nm.

Wavelengths from 190 to 360nm
Spot sizes from 150μm to 30mm*
Energy density from 50μJ/cm² to 0.6J/cm²**

* Maximum measurable spot size is 4 times the CCD...

Pulse Power Measurement: Measuring Instantaneous Power of a Short Pulse

You can now measure high average powers using moderate power sensors, using a new feature in the StarBright meter called “Pulse Power Measurement”. Thermopile sensors are often used to measure single shot pulse energy; the instrument can easily calculate instantaneous pulse power from this if it knows the pulse width (since power = pulse energy / pulse width). With the StarBright set to “Pulse Power” mode (supported from StarBright firmware version 1.30), the user enters the length of the pulse, fires the pulse, and StarBright then displays the instantaneous power...

Power Meter Logging

Logging periods and limitations, both for when logging on-board the meter, and when logging on a PC with StarLab.

Onboard logging with Nova II, Vega and StarBright meters: The number of measurements that can be stored is firstly limited by the amount of memory available to the meter as detailed in the catalogue table below:
- On the Nova II (and hence its offshoot the Vega) we did set an arbitrary maximum time...

BeamGage Multiple Processes and Internal TCP Communication

BeamGage is a multiple process application which requires local (not network or internet) port access to communicate. This allows for a great amount of flexibility when using multiple camera or multiple analyzer configurations. By default the port range in use is TCP 10100-11100. This can be reconfigured if these ports are already in use by another program or system.

BeamGage has three process types which will run. Spiricon.ConsoleService.exe is a Windows Service process that launches the connections to cameras. Spiricon....

Laser Beam Measurement Vocabulary

Wavelength: In physics, the wavelength of a sinusoidal wave is the spatial period of the wave— the distance over which the wave's shape repeats,[1] and the inverse of the spatial frequency. It is usually determined by considering the distance between consecutive corresponding points of the same phase, such as crests, troughs, or zero crossings and is a characteristic of both traveling waves and standing waves, as well as other spatial wave patterns.[2][3] Wavelength is commonly designated by the Greek letter lambda (λ)...

Characterizing a Laser Used in Metal Additive Manufacturing Equipment

John McCauley, Midwest Region Sales Manager, Ophir-Spiricon, LLC

A developer of power-bed additive manufacturing systems needed a beam profiling system that could be used by their field technicians for setup and maintenance of customers’ lasers. The view of the caustic was not as important as the laser measurement results

Measuring Non-Laser Light Sources with Commercial Laser Beam Profiling Systems

Kevin Kirkham, Senior Manager, Product Development, Ophir-Spiricon, LLC

Commercially available laser beam profiling products are used throughout the world to research, develop, manufacture, and test the quality of lasers and systems that use lasers. These measurement systems are also commonly employed to test and evaluate the spatial intensity distribution of other light sources.

Laser beam profiling products are typically composed of a 2-dimensional sensor array, optical imaging and attenuation optics, and software that displays, analyzes, and records the visual representations of the distribution of light for measurement,...

What’s New: Calibration Portal

Kristen Winterton, Calibration Technician, Ophir-Spiricon LLC

A quote attributed to Heraclitus, a Greek philosopher, states that change is the only constant in life. Change often comes as a surprise and is seen as a painful part of life; however, that is not always the case. At Ophir-Spiricon we believe that change can be positive. We continuously look for ways that we can improve the customer experience, and often, we succeed.

One of our customers, Inter-Coastal Electronics, recently sent equipment to us for recalibration. Their buyer shared her experience with us and...

Minimizing corrosion in water cooled sensors

Our current recommendation is to use DI water that has been titrated to a neutral pH (using a bit of sodium hydroxide for example – see FAQ at https://www.ophiropt.com/laser--measurement/knowledge-center/faq/7805 The commercial additive Optishield Plus is also recommended for systems such as ours that have copper and aluminum in them. It has the additional benefit of including a biocide to prevent the buildup of bacteria and algae...

Finding the center of the NanoScan

The center of the NanoScan can be found by the following steps:

Connect the NanoScan to the computer and open the software.
Start recording data
Go to the Computations tab and select the Rolling mode
Go to the Profiles tab
Under the Origin Location section of the Profiles tab
- Click on the Default button
- Click...

Calibration Wavelength

Calibration Method and Estimated Accuracy for Ophir High Power Sensors
Ophir models 5000W, 10K-W and Comet 10K are calibrated using relatively low power lasers ~ 150 - 300W. Using such low power lasers to calibrate the instrument vs. the high power at which the sensors are used raises the question of calibration accuracy. The following explanation clearly demonstrates that the 5000W, 10K-W and Comet 10K are indeed accurate to ±5% over their measurement range. The 5000W and 10K-W sensors work on the thermopile principle, where the radial heat flow in the absorber disk causes a temperature difference between the hot and cold junctions of the thermopile which in turn causes a voltage difference across the thermopile. Since the instrument is a thermopile voltage generating device, it must be linear at low values of output. Therefore, if it is shown to be linear at powers which are a significant fraction of the maximum power, it will necessarily be linear at very low powers and if the calibration is correct at low powers, it will remain correct at high powers as well. On the other hand, although the output may be linear at low powers, there may be a zero offset that, due to the relatively low output at low powers, will cause an error in calibration...

How Continuous Improvement in Customer Service Affects You

Kristen Winterton, Calibration Technician

An integral part of the Ophir-Spiricon culture is an engendering of the practice of continuous improvement. We do this with one focus in mind: Customer Satisfaction. The question driving all of these improvements is, “What can we do to provide better service to our customers?” One element of this is captured in the development of a system to recognize the improvements made in the Calibration Department.

These improvements come from every person in the department, and are documented...

Recalibration and Repair: Your Most Cost-Effective Calibration Solution

Kristen Winterton, Calibration Technician

At Ophir-Spiricon, we realize that our customers are the lifeblood of our company. Because of this partnership, we are driven to provide quality products and services in the most cost-effective way possible. To help you minimize the costs of maintaining equipment, we have put into place many features of our services to support your goals.

Expanded ISO Accreditations

Kristen Winterton, Calibration Technician

At Ophir-Spiricon we pride ourselves on providing quality in every step of our service to you. To validate and measure our commitment to quality, Ophir-Spiricon has recently renewed our ISO/IEC 17025:2005 accreditation by ACLASS. We validated that we are still in compliance for our calibration systems. ISO/IEC 17025:2005 is an accreditation that provides the general standards for testing and calibration labs worldwide. It helps us strive to complete consistent, valid results in our testing.

...

What Does an ISO/IEC 17025 Accredited Lab Offer That is Not Provided By ISO 9001 or Other Certification?

By Kristen Winterton, Calibration Technician

The calibration laboratory at Ophir-Spiricon recently expanded the Scope of Accreditation of our ISO/IEC 17025:2005 Accreditation by ACLASS to include Beam Profiling equipment. This addition to our Scope of Accreditation expanded our current portfolio of offerings to include all product lines calibrated in the calibration lab at Ophir-Spiricon.
...

New 3-Day Expedite and 24-Hour Super Expedite Options

Kristen Winterton, Calibration Technician

Spiricon has worked tirelessly over the course of the last several years to enhance the customer service experience and to continue to provide a quality service to our customers. With customer satisfaction one of our main objectives, we have developed processes at all levels that help us reach this goal. Our highly skilled technicians have been rigorously trained to ensure that each piece of equipment that is calibrated and repaired is done so with accuracy and efficiency, providing our customers better and more responsive service.

...

Raising the Standard of Service

Kristen Winterton, Calibration Technician

At Ophir-Spiricon we have raised the standard of service. One of the pillars of our business model is customer satisfaction, and we firmly believe that the level of customer focus we provide makes us stand out in our industry.

The services provided by our Recalibration and Repair department have continually evolved to become what they are today. For your convenience, we have developed many “extras” and integrated them into a standard part of our service. Providing these extras as part...

Thermal Sensors: What does the minimum measurable power specification mean?

At very low powers the zero offset becomes important. This means that the sensor reads some value even if there is no input into it. This can be because of external heat sources or the fact that the meter is not zeroed properly. Now say that there is a zero offset of 10mW = 0.01W. If we are reading a laser of 10W, then the meter will read 10.01W, an additional error of 0.1%, very small. But if we are trying to measure 0.1W, then the reading will be 0.11W, an error of 10%! This is illustrated in the diagram below...

How Can Calibration Help Me?

Kristen Winterton, Calibration Technician, Ophir-Spiricon LLC

A common concern that I have heard throughout my years with Ophir-Spiricon is that many people do not understand the necessity of calibration. They do not understand what the calibration process entails, and how it can save them money, time, and frustration.

Our products are used throughout the world in many different areas, from medical and scientific processes to defense and industrial applications. With each application there are different usage parameters; however, one thing that remains consistent no...

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