T. W. TUKKER

Philips Research Laboratories, Prof. Holstlaan 4, 5656 AA Eindhoven, The Netherlands

(Received October 12, 2004; Accepted February 1, 2005)

Beam-shaping optics are used in optical pick-up units to improve the optical power efficiency of the light path. In this paper a flexible method is presented to design beam-shaping optics with aspherical surfaces transforming the intensity profile of the light beam into any desired profile. The method is applied to a collimator lens that transforms a Gaussian beam profile to a flat top.

Key words: beam-shaping, optical recording, optical design