Optical system design for small size laser ranging

The portable laser ranging system with semiconductor laser has the advantages of small size, light weight and so on, and has broad application prospect. However, as a core component, the semiconductor laser beam divergence angle is bigger, and the beam quality is poor. It can´t meet the requirements of laser ranging system directly; therefore, it is necessary to carry out the study on the beam shaping. In this paper, according to the requirement of laser ranging system, the author carries out the study of the beam quality of semiconductor laser, and has the simulation and analysis of the system using ZEMAX software. Initial divergent angles of a 905nm wavelength semiconductor laser at fast axis and slow axis were 30° and 15° respectively. After the plastic, the divergent angles at fast axis and slow axis are 2° and 4° respectively, and energy loss is about 25%.