Design of unstable laser resonators with user-defined mode shape

Author

Zeitner, Uwe D. ; Wyrowski, Frank

Author_Institution

Fraunhofer Inst. fur Angewandte Optik und Fein- mechanik, Jena, Germany

Volume

37

Issue

12

fYear

2001

fDate

12/1/2001 12:00:00 AM

Firstpage

1594

Lastpage

1599

Abstract

By introducing surface-structured mirrors into stable laser resonators, the generation of user-defined mode profiles and properties has become possible. On a wave-optical basis, we show that there is a general connection between the property of the modes to be phase-conjugated during reflection at the mirrors and their diffraction losses at apertures. This connection makes the design method known for stable resonators with predefined modes unsuitable for the design of such resonators of unstable geometry. An alternative method for the calculation of unstable resonators with user-defined output beam shape is presented and demonstrated by an example design

Keywords

Fabry-Perot resonators; laser beams; laser cavity resonators; laser mirrors; laser modes; laser stability; light diffraction; light reflection; optical design techniques; optical losses; optical phase conjugation; apertures; design; design method; diffraction losses; example design; mirrors; phase-conjugated modes; predefined modes; reflection; resonators; stable laser resonators; stable resonators; surface-structured mirrors; unstable geometry; unstable laser resonators; unstable resonators; user-defined mode profiles; user-defined mode properties; user-defined mode shape; user-defined output beam shape; wave-optical basis; Apertures; Design methodology; Diffraction; Laser modes; Laser stability; Mirrors; Optical design; Optical reflection; Shape; Surface emitting lasers;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Quantum Electronics, IEEE Journal of

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

0018-9197

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/3.970906

Filename

970906