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Light pipes are key optical components used in projection systems to transport and homogenize light from the source towards the light valve. They can provide a uniform light distribution at their output as a result of multiple internal reflections. In laser projection systems, such light pipes are useful in combination with a laser-light module consisting of one or more single-mode lasers and a rotating diffuser. The partially coherent light emanating from the rotating diffuser is transported and homogenized towards the end of the light pipe. Consequently, propagation through the light pipe will also modify the coherence properties of the laser light. In this paper, a computationally efficient simulation model is presented to propagate partially coherent light through a homogenizing rectangular light pipe. The resulting coherence function clearly differs from that of free-space propagation over the same optical path length. The implications of these results on, for example, the appearance of speckle are discussed in further detail. The simulation results are experimentally verified using a reversing wavefront Michelson interferometer. The approach described in this paper can be extended further to investigate other types of light pipes, such as tapered light pipes or even more complex ones. ispartof: OPTICAL MODELLING AND DESIGN III vol:9131 ispartof: Conference on Optical Modelling and Design III location:Brussels: BELGIUM date:15 Apr - 17 Apr 2014 status: published

A Gaussian laser beam is reshaped to have specific irradiance distributions in many applications in order to ensure optimal system performance. Refractive optics are commonly used for laser beam shaping. A refractive laser beam shaper is typically formed by either two plano-aspheric lenses or by one thick lens with two aspherical surfaces. Ray mapping is a general optical design technique to design refractive beam shapers based on geometric optics. This design technique in principle allows to generate any rotational-symmetric irradiance profile, yet in literature ray mapping is mainly developed to transform a Gaussian irradiance profile to a uniform profile. For more complex profiles especially with low intensity in the inner region, like a Dark Hollow Gaussian (DHG) irradiance profile, ray mapping technique is not directly applicable in practice. In order to these complex profiles, the numerical effort of calculating the aspherical surface points and fitting a surface with sufficient accuracy increases considerably. In this work we evaluate different sampling approaches and surface fitting methods. This allows us to propose and demonstrate a comprehensive numerical approach to efficiently design refractive laser beam shapers to generate rotational-symmetric collimated beams with a complex irradiance profile. Ray tracing analysis for several complex irradiance profiles demonstrates excellent performance of the designed lenses and the versatility of our design procedure. ispartof: OPTICAL MODELLING AND DESIGN III vol:9131 ispartof: Conference on Optical Modelling and Design III location:Brussels: BELGIUM date:15 Apr - 17 Apr 2014 status: published