Micro-electro-mechanical system-based digitally controlled optical beam profiler

An optical beam profiler is introduced that uses a two-dimensional (2-D) small-tilt micromirror device. Its key features include fast speed, digital control, low polarization sensitivity, and wavelength independence. The use of this 2-D multipixel device opens up the important possibility of realizing several beam profile measurement concepts, such as a moving knife edge, a scanning slit, a moving pinhole, a variable aperture, and a 2-D photodiode array. The experimental proof of the optical beam profiler concept using a 2-D digital micromirror device to simulate the 2-D moving knife edge indicates a small measurement error of 0.19% compared with the expected number based on a Gaussian beam-propagation analysis. Other 2-D pixel arrays such as a liquid-crystal-based 90 polarization rotator sandwiched between crossed polarizers can also be exploited for the optical beam whose polarization direction is known.