Two-mirror beam-shaping technique for high-power diode bars

A simple beam-shaping technique is described whereby the output from a highly asymmetric non-diffraction-limited laser source; such as a high-power diode bar, can be reconfigured with nearly equal beam-quality factors in orthogonal planes and without a significant reduction in brightness. Using this technique, in conjunction with conventional lenses, we have focused the output from a 20-W cw diode bar to a very intense, nearly circular spot with a 1/e(2) beam diameter of similar to 100 mu m and a far-field beam divergence (half-angle) of similar to 0.2 rad. (C) 1996 Optical Society of America