Tunable diode laser-integrating sphere systems: a study of their output intensity characteristics

The output and transmission characteristics of both single and double (tandem) integrating spheres have been studied with a lead-salt diode laser in the 2000-cm(-1) spectral region. For an f/20 input beam, the effective length is about eight times the diameter of the sphere. The corresponding transmittance is ~10(-5) for the tandem spheres. The output beam has a Gaussian profile.