Apodised aperture assembly for high power lasers

An apodized aperture assembly using absorbing liquid or solid to vary transmission over the cross section thereof is used to minimize deleterious diffraction effects in high power lasers. By employing, for example, an absorbing liquid of varying optical density to obtain the transmission profile, a circular aperture of this type can be used to minimize diffraction effects, thereby substantially improving the performance of a high power laser system. (U.S.)