Abstract: A beam quality measurement system for determining beam quality of a high power laser beam from a laser system by power-in-the-bucket (PIB) measurements in a laboratory environment. The system includes a beam compressor assembly for compressing the diameter of the laser beam, and a diagnostic bench assembly that receives the reduced diameter low power beam from the beam compressor assembly. The bench assembly includes a pinhole array positioned at a focal plane of a lens and that includes a plurality of different sized pinholes and a translation stage for moving the pinhole array. The bench assembly also includes a power meter that receives the focused beam after it has passed through a pinhole in the pinhole array, where the power meter generates a signal that causes the stage to move the pinhole array to position another pinhole when the power meter identifies a maximum power received from one pinhole.

Abstract: A system for making small signal gain measurements of a chemical laser, such as an HF or DF laser. The system is adapted to measure the two dimensional (x,y) gain distribution in real time (i.e. 30 to 40 frames per second). The system includes a resonating galvanometer driven scanning mirror which is able to tilt in both the horizontal x and vertical y direction. The scanning mirror is used for scanning the gain profile of an HF/DF probe laser. The tiltable scanning mirror with appropriate optics, allows the laser beam from the probe laser to be scanned while remaining parallel to the nozzle exit plane of the laser and thus allows the two dimensional scanning of the gain distribution in real time (i.e. at rates up to 40 frames per second). As such, the system is adapted to be controlled by a personal computer with the data stored on a hard disk drive therewithin.