Measurement of Gaussian laser beam radius using the knife-edge technique: improvement on data analysis.

We revisited the well known Khosrofian and Garetz inversion algorithm [Appl. Opt.22, 3406-3410 (1983)] that was developed to analyze data obtained by the application of the traveling knife-edge technique. We have analyzed the approximated fitting function that was used for adjusting their experimental data and have found that it is not optimized to work with a full range of the experimentally-measured data. We have numerically calculated a new set of coefficients, which makes the approximated function suitable for a full experimental range, considerably improving the accuracy of the measurement of a radius of a focused Gaussian laser beam.