The present invention contemplates a method and apparatus to generate a laser probe beam free of speckles. The present invention employs a holographic phase plate inserted in a laser beam path to modulate the relative phase across the beam. The holographic phase plate is designed to optimize the phase modulation across the beam while to minimize the degradation of the beam quality. The modulated laser beam has only a small and confined divergent angle and can then be refocused or collimated into a narrow and near collimated probe beam. The present invention further rotates the holographic phase plate to randomize the speckles in a time sequence. As a result, the probe beam preserves substantially the beam quality of a laser and produces substantially no speckles on image of its, intersection with a surface or material.