Abstract

Laser source with ring-shaped Laguerre-Gaussian (LG) mode output beams, sometimes referred to as hollow laser beams or donut beams, have applications in a number of areas, including laser drilling and writing, optical manipulation of particles, trapping and guiding of atoms and lithography. Various methods for generating hollow laser beams have been introduced over the years; however, in general, these techniques have rather limited flexibility and are not well-suited for operation at high power levels, or lead to significant degradation in beam quality and brightness limiting applicability.

© 2011 Optical Society of America