Search results

I remember older DPSS green lasers also having elliptical, almost circular shaped beams. I also have a 1 watt ~445nm blue laser that has a somewhat less divergent beam. It just seems that the higher the power, the more likely the diode surface is to be a long thin strip. I would like to know...

It would probably cost the manufacturer a lot more to make circular surfaced diodes that produce high output (at least to >5 watt 450nm diodes).

One way to do this is to send the beam through a very small circular pin-hole. Unfortunately it means blocking a lot of the output, but the smaller the hole, the more circular the beam will appear over at least midrange distances.