The slit apertures act as physical attenuators, preventing detector saturation for most beam applications. High dynamic range amplification allows operation over many orders of magnitude in beam power.
From these profiles, important spatial information such as beam width, beam position, beam quality, and other characteristics are determined. This technique can accommodate a wide variety of test conditions. Because slit scanners measure beams at high powers with little or no attenuation, they are ideal to profile beams used in material processing.
Carbon dioxide (CO2) lasers are widely used in materials processing, and have a 10.6 micron wavelength that cannot be profiled with most cameras. Slit scanners, therefore, provide an convenient means of measuring high-resolution CO2 lasers with powers up to and exceeding 1000 watts.