Analysis and modelling of high power laser beam position sensing

A new theory using a rotating convex mirror to reflect part of a laser beam into a pyre-electric sensor in order to detect the high power laser beam position is addressed in this research. The experiments were performed on the Nd:YAG laser system. The sensing performance was tested with the average power up to 50 W, duration time 1 ms and duration frequency 360 Hz. The results of static experiments show that the sensing system designed and developed in this research may correctly detect the Nd:YAG laser beam with the system parameters varied. The results of dynamic experiments show that the average sensing accuracy of beam position is up to 90% with a wide variation of laser system parameters. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.