DEVICE FOR CONVERTING DISTRIBUTION OF INTENSITY OF LASER BEAM, DEVICE AND METHOD FOR GENERATING LASER BEAM, AND METHOD FOR RECRYSTALLIZING SILICON LAYER

摘要

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a device for converting a distribution of intensity of a laser beam so as to be continuously reduced from one side to the other side along the traverse direction of the laser beam. SOLUTION: The device is provided with a combination of a homogenizer 10 and at least one of inverters 24 and 26. Partial beams of the laser beam are mutually superposed by the homogenizer 10 so that homogenization of the distribution of intensity of the laser beam is promoted when the laser beam having the specific distribution of intensity passes through the homogenizer 10. Also, the distribution of intensity of a partial region, in particular, a partial beam or a plurality of adjacent partial beams is inverted by inverters 24 and 26 along at least one axis along which intensity is inverted. The degree of reduction of intensity from one side to the other side is controlled by the number of the inverters.