Abstract

A method for approximating the inverse error function involved in the determination of the radius of a Gaussian beam is proposed. It is based on a polynomial inversion that can be developed to any desired degree, according to an a priori defined error budget. Analytic expressions are obtained and used to determine the radius of a ${\mathrm{TEM}}_{oo}$ He–Ne laser beam from intensity measurements experimentally obtained by using the knife edge method. The error and the interval of validity of the approximation are determined for polynomials of different degrees. The analysis of the theoretical and experimental errors is also presented.

© 2013 Optical Society of America

Measurement of Gaussian laser beam radius using the knife-edge technique: improvement on data analysis

Marcos A. de Araújo, Rubens Silva, Emerson de Lima, Daniel P. Pereira, and Paulo C. de Oliveira
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Measurement of a Gaussian laser beam diameter through the direct inversion of knife-edge data

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Abel inversion of knife-edge data from radially symmetric pulsed laser beams

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Corrections to the knife-edge based reconstruction scheme of tightly focused light beams

C. Huber, S. Orlov, P. Banzer, and G. Leuchs
Opt. Express 21(21) 25069-25076 (2013)

Knife-edge scanning of an astigmatic Gaussian beam

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