Patent ID: 7408687

Claim:
A laser beam delivery system comprising: a laser generating a laser beam along a beam path; at least one extra-cavity harmonic generation element located in the beam path for generating harmonic multiples of a beam input frequency; and a radially non-symmetric extra-cavity beam forming element located before the at least one harmonic generation element for transforming an input energy profile of an input laser beam having a beam axis subject to lateral shift that is variable in radial direction and magnitude into an output laser beam having a desired output energy profile; the radially non-symmetric beam forming element including: an optical element including a profile transformation function, including a first profile transformation function for transforming the input energy profile into the desired output energy profile, and a profile correction transformation function superimposed on the first profile transformation function for modifying the first profile transformation function to correct distortions in the output energy profile introduced be a lateral shift of the input laser beam.