StarBright User Manual
36
6
BeamTrack Sensors
For a list of the available BeamTrack Sensor models that can be used with StarBright, see
Some of Ophir’s Thermopile sensors are equipped with circuitry enables them to measure the
laser’s position as well as the spot size in addition to standard power and energy measurement.
The BeamTrack line of sensors are Thermopile sensors that can measure beam position and beam
size while measuring power. The BeamTrack sensor provides additional information on your laser
beam – centering, beam position and wander, beam size as well as power and single shot energy.
The BeamTrack sensor works as follows: the signal coming from the sensor is divided into 4
quadrants so by measuring and comparing the output from the 4 sections you can determine the
position of the center of the beam to a high degree of accuracy. In addition to the 4 quadrants,
there is a special patented beam size detector. After processing outputs from these various
detectors, the user is presented with the beam position as well as beam size. Note that the beam
size is calibrated only for Gaussian beams of >3mm, but for other beams it will give relative size
information and will indicate if the beam is changing size.
Figure
6-1 BeamTrack Sensor
This section describes the StarBright’s position and size measurement functionality. This is
available in the
Track
measuring mode, which shows the position of the laser beam as measured
by the sensor. If the beam is close enough to the center and the sensor is capable of size
measurement, then the laser beam will be displayed as a spot drawn to scale. Otherwise, the
location will be displayed as an X.
Topics include:
Setting Measurement Parameters
Tracking Laser Beam Position and Size
Tracking Stability - Laser Beam Position Over Time
