Abstract

A necessary condition for generating optical beams with a nearly uniform profile at a certain transverse plane is proposed. This proposal leads to the introduction of a set of light beams with flat-topped profiles. This set of beams can be expressed as a finite series of lowest-order Gaussian modes $\left({\mathrm{TEM}}_{00}\right)$ with different parameters. The main features of this set of beams are investigated and compared with those predicted by existing models of flattened Gaussian beams.

© 2002 Optical Society of America

Correspondence between super-Gaussian and flattened Gaussian beams

Massimo Santarsiero and Riccardo Borghi
J. Opt. Soc. Am. A 16(1) 188-190 (1999)

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Uniform approximation of paraxial flat-topped beams

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Partially coherent flat-topped beam and its propagation

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