LASER PROCESSING HEAD HAVING WIDE RANGE ZOOM

A laser processing head directs laser energy along an optical axis from a fiber to perform brazing or welding operations. A collimating stage collimates a diverging beam of the laser energy from the fiber into a collimated beam, and a focusing stage focuses the collimated beam into a converging beam to a focus spot for the desired operation. At least one of the stages has a changeable effective focal length for zoom functionality. A freeform refractive optic can be positioned in at least one of the diverging and collimated beams. For example, a freeform refractive optic in a first position is placed out of the diverging beam. However, the freeform refractive optic in a second position placed in the diverging beam can field map or intensity map the diverging beam to produce the mapped diverging beam, which increases an image of the fiber tip to the collimating stage.