Usually the optical setup of the laser by hobbyists is very neglected. But the optical part is no less important than the rest, maybe you have built a very good quality electro-optical part, but then the result is diminished by the fact that you do nothing to improve the characteristics of the emitted beam, if you actually want to achieve a goal that is total quality, you have to take care of this aspect too !
That is why I have made it a point to spend the right amount to really get something of a certain level, and that means "Ray Shaping" , this mysterious little-known word means in simple words that the ray obtained from the diode is not perfect, but it has an elongated shape on one of the axes, this depends on the characteristics of the emitter, and foreshadows the existence of a slow axis and a fast axis on which the ray spreads.
That is why it is vital to correct the emission so as not to lose too much power when the beam will be used for example in holography, but also for other purposes.

Beam enhancement can be achieved by normalizing it on the axes using cylindrical lenses or prisms, each of the two methods has advantages and disadvantages, but for me the best one remains to use a lens system, but this is subjective at the discretion of the material and purpose.

LENSES-Note how the beam entered in a very large horizontal form is reduced to a point at the exit, normalization is achieved by the set of two lenses in the path.

Correction is always expensive; there are no cheap parts if they are really good.

PRISM - It is not quite the prism I would like, but a few experiments did not give me enough assurance about the result, I would not use them instead of lenses, however even here the improvement is obvious.

The radius is improved but not to the extent achievable with lenses From the surplus dealers on the side it is possible to find bargains at decent prices; what costs the most, unfortunately, is shipping.