Graphical Displays
StarBright User Manual
67
9.8
Position (for BeamTrack Sensors)
The BeamTrack line of sensors are Thermopile sensors that can measure beam position and beam
size while measuring power. 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 but for other beams it will give relative
size information and will indicate if the beam is changing size.
This section describes the StarBright’s position and size measurement functionality. This is
available in the
Track
screen, 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.
shows a sample BeamTrack Sensor Position graph, where you can configure
Measuring
,
Range
,
Wavelength
, and
Average
. See
Figure
9-30 BeamTrack Position and Size Display
The Position display comprises the following components:
Parameter settings, the sensor’s name and serial number, and battery status indicator at the
top of the screen.
Numeric display of power, (XY) position, and size along the left side of the screen.
Position and size displayed graphically along the right side of the screen.
Soft key legends at the bottom of the screen (for example, Menu, Center, Offset).
The following procedure describes how to track power and size measurement using a BeamTrack
sensor in Track mode.