Intracavity spatial mode control of a diode-pumped Nd:YAG laser with an hologram

Summary form only given. Mode shaping of a laser beam is useful to maximize modal discrimination while maintaining a large mode volume in gain medium, and for any application for which a specified beam profile is required. Recently, it has been shown that diffractive optical elements in laser cavities permits to achieve beam shaping. Such diffractive elements are generally fabricated using photolithographic process with electron-beam, reactive-ion etching and multiple binary masks. Our goal is to use a phase hologram written on a photopolymer film inside the cavity to control the mode shape. With this approach, the diffractive element is simple and fast to fabricate, is potentially low cost and offers much more flexibility.