A continuously variable beam expander driven by ultrasonic motors.

A dynamic beam shaping system requires a variable beam expander. Three optical lenses form the core of the proposed beam expander, and two hollow ultrasonic motors are used to adjust the positions of two of the lenses. A polymer-based stator is introduced in the ultrasonic motors to decrease their weight, whereupon a prototype is machined and its performance is assessed. The beam expander starts and stops within 0.05 s, and the minimum positioning error is 0.03 µm by adjusting the motor speed. The presented expander can continuously expand a laser beam by between threefold and fivefold, and nanoscale positioning and high-precision beam shaping are realized by using ultrasonic motors as its actuators.