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Beam shaping of laser diode stacks for compact and efficient illumination devices at the French-German Research Institute of Saint-Louis

  • Yves Lutz

    Yves Lutz received his MSc from the University of Franche Comté and his PhD from the University of Haute-Alsace (France) in the field of Laser Physics. He specializes in the field of development of laser sources and laser illumination devices. He is currently working on illumination sources for long-range active imaging applications.

         and Martin Laurenzis

    Martin Laurenzis obtained his MSc in Physics from the University of Dortmund (Germany) and his PhD in Electrical Engineering and Information Technology from the University of Aachen (Germany). He is specialized in the area of night vision systems and active imaging with a particular interest in vision in poor weather conditions. He is currently developing new 3D techniques and new theoretical tools for performance evaluation of 3D active imaging systems.

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Published/Copyright: February 11, 2014
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Advanced Optical Technologies
From the journal Advanced Optical Technologies Volume 3 Issue 2

Abstract

Laser diode stacks are applied for the realization of compact and efficient laser illumination devices for active imaging (e.g., laser gated viewing). An efficient use of illumination power and sensor arrays has to adapt the laser illumination to the sensor’s field of view (FOV) with a perfectly matched and homogeneous illumination field. In the past decades, ISL has studied different methods for beam shaping and homogenization of laser diode stacks. In this publication, the authors give a review of the development of different beam-shaping techniques for auto-stack, minibar stack in a specific configuration and standard laser diode stacks. The presented methods are based on the application of wedge-type waveguides, fast axis and slow axis collimation, and the rearrangement of the laser beams by polarization overlapping and virtual restacking. All presented methods have very high transmission efficiencies (>80%) and lead to a homogeneous illumination matched to the sensor’s field of view.

Keywords: beam shaping; illumination; laser-gated viewing; laser diode stack
Corresponding author: Martin Laurenzis, French-German Research Institute of Saint-Louis (ISL), 5 Rue du General Cassagnou, 68301 Saint-Louis, France, e-mail:

About the authors

Yves Lutz

Yves Lutz received his MSc from the University of Franche Comté and his PhD from the University of Haute-Alsace (France) in the field of Laser Physics. He specializes in the field of development of laser sources and laser illumination devices. He is currently working on illumination sources for long-range active imaging applications.

Martin Laurenzis

Martin Laurenzis obtained his MSc in Physics from the University of Dortmund (Germany) and his PhD in Electrical Engineering and Information Technology from the University of Aachen (Germany). He is specialized in the area of night vision systems and active imaging with a particular interest in vision in poor weather conditions. He is currently developing new 3D techniques and new theoretical tools for performance evaluation of 3D active imaging systems.

Acknowledgments

The authors want to acknowledge the financial funding of their work by the French and the German ministry of defense. Further, they want to thank Jean-Michel Poyet, Nicolas Metzger, Emmanuel Bacher, and Frank Christnacher from ISL for their help and their engagement in the cited work.

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Received: 2013-11-22
Accepted: 2014-1-16
Published Online: 2014-2-11
Published in Print: 2014-4-1

©2014 by THOSS Media & De Gruyter Berlin/Boston

Articles in the same Issue

  1. Cover and Frontmatter
  2. Views
  3. Transferring diffractive optics from research to commercial applications: Part II – size estimations for selected markets
  4. Community
  5. Conference Notes
  6. Conference Calendar
  7. Topical Issue: Active Imaging
  8. Editorial
  9. Active Imaging
  10. Tutorials
  11. Quantum cascade lasers (QCL) for active hyperspectral imaging
  12. Active gated imaging in driver assistance system
  13. Review Articles
  14. Active spectral imaging and mapping
  15. Beam shaping of laser diode stacks for compact and efficient illumination devices at the French-German Research Institute of Saint-Louis
  16. Research Articles
  17. Time-correlated single-photon counting range profiling and reflectance tomographic imaging
  18. Optical stimulator for vision-based sensors
https://doi.org/10.1515/aot-2013-0060
Keywords for this article
beam shaping; illumination; laser-gated viewing; laser diode stack

Articles in the same Issue

  1. Cover and Frontmatter
  2. Views
  3. Transferring diffractive optics from research to commercial applications: Part II – size estimations for selected markets
  4. Community
  5. Conference Notes
  6. Conference Calendar
  7. Topical Issue: Active Imaging
  8. Editorial
  9. Active Imaging
  10. Tutorials
  11. Quantum cascade lasers (QCL) for active hyperspectral imaging
  12. Active gated imaging in driver assistance system
  13. Review Articles
  14. Active spectral imaging and mapping
  15. Beam shaping of laser diode stacks for compact and efficient illumination devices at the French-German Research Institute of Saint-Louis
  16. Research Articles
  17. Time-correlated single-photon counting range profiling and reflectance tomographic imaging
  18. Optical stimulator for vision-based sensors
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