The invention relates to a beam shaping device for shaping the
cross-section of a light beam, comprising at least one beam shaping unit
with beam splitting means, beam deflecting means, and beam combination
means. The beam splitting means are capable of diving up a light beam that
is incident on the beam shaping unit into two partial beams. The beam
deflecting means are capable of deflecting at least one of the partial
beams onto the beam combination means and said beam combination means are
capable of combining the two partial beams in such a manner that the
cross-section of the light beam exiting the beam shaping unit is reduced
in size in a first direction compared to the cross-section of the light
beam that is incident on the beam shaping unit and is increased in size in
a second direction perpendicular thereto. the invention is further
characterized in that the beam combination means can also be used as beam
splitting means, whereby only one of the partial beams is deflected by the
beam deflecting means, while the other partial beam is directly incident
on the beam combination means.
