Patent ID: 7847213

Claim:
A method for modifying a coherent photonic beam having a wavelength (λ), an initial width (2a), and an initial intensity profile across the width, comprising the steps of: (a) producing the coherent photonic beam from a laser having: a laser cavity that is unstable in at least one direction and a laser output opening defined at least in part by parallel sides spaced apart from each other at a distance equaling the initial width of the beam and oriented in the at least one unstable direction; and (b) passing the beam from the output opening through a relay having a Fourier plane containing a spatial filter having a filter aperture that is sized, shaped and positioned to modify the beam such that a filtered image of the laser output opening is produced at a substrate, the filtered image at the substrate having a modified intensity profile in the at least one unstable direction that more closely approximates a super-Gaussian profile than the initial intensity profile.