Patent ID: 7511886

Claim:
An optical beam transformation system comprising: a sequence of optical elements arranged along an optical axis of the optical beam transformation system and designed for transforming an entrance light distribution striking an entrance surface of the optical beam transformation system into an exit light distribution emerging from an exit surface of the optical beam transformation system by radial redistribution of light intensity; the optical elements comprising: a first transformation element with a first transformation surface inclined to the optical axis, and a second transformation element, arranged downstream of the first transformation element, with a second transformation surface inclined to the optical axis, each of the transformation surfaces causing a radial redistribution of light intensity and a polarization-selective reflection of a light distribution incident on the transformation surface according to an efficiency symmetry characteristic for the transformation surface; and an optical compensation element effecting a spatially dependent compensation of transmission inhomogeneties caused by the polarization-selective reflection of the first transformation surface according to a compensation symmetry adapted to the efficiency symmetry of the first transformation surface, arranged in the light direction upstream of the first transformation surface, and designed such that rays striking the transformation surfaces are polarized approximately perpendicular or approximately parallel to the respective incidence plane of rays on the first transformation surface, wherein the optical compensation element comprises a first raster arrangement of half-wave plates whose principal axes are oriented such that rays striking the transformation surfaces are polarized approximately perpendicular or approximately parallel to the respective incidence plane of the rays.