Isao Ishibai

Aspheric lens laser diode collimator design for optical intersatellite communications

A design for a laser diode collimator using aspheric lens technology was employed to achieve a 5-mm-diameter circular output beam with minimal wavefront aberration, and the minimum number of lenses of the smallest size. The presently designed collimator can achieve a wavefront aberration of better than λ/100 with a pair of aspheric anamorphic lenses, and a total length of 30 mm.

Aspheric lens LD collimator for an optical intersatellite link

An LD collimator was constructed, using an aspheric lens configuration for the transmitter of an optical intersatellite link. The design results show that the 5 mm diameter circular LD output beam whose rms wavefront aberration is better than (lambda) /100 is available in a two-or three-lens configuration. The first fabrication trial of the three-lens configuration achieved an rms wavefront aberration of better than (lambda) /16. This result proves that it is possible to obtain high wavefront performance, while reducing the required number of lenses when an aspheric lens configuration is adopted.