Characterization of micrometer-size laser beam using a vibrating wire as a miniature scanner.

A new method for profile measurements of small transverse size beams by means of a vibrating wire is presented. A vibrating wire resonator with a new magnetic system was developed and manufactured to ensure that the wire oscillated in a single plane. Presented evidence gives us confidence that the autogenerator creates vibrations at the natural frequency of the wire in a plane of the magnetic system, and these vibrations are sinusoidal. The system for measuring the laser beam reflected from the vibrating wire by means of a fast photodiode was upgraded. The experiments allowed the reconstruction of a fine structure of the focused beam of the semiconductor laser using only a few vibrating wire oscillations. The system presented here would eventually enable the implementation of tomographic measurements of the thin beam profile.