Abstract

A diffractive laser cavity mirror is described that can customize the amplitude and phase of a laser mode. The design of this diffractive element is shown for a square, flat-topped fundamental mode. The laser cavity has a theoretical fundamental mode loss of only 0.08% and a second-order mode loss of 48.2%, resulting in high modal discrimination. The fabricated mirror is tested in a Nd:YAG laser system. The resulting square flat-topped mode has an rms variation of 1.5% over the two-dimensional flat-topped region and a large discrimination against higher-order modes.

© 1994 Optical Society of America

High modal discrimination in a Nd:YAG laser resonator with internal phase gratings

James R. Leger, Diana Chen, and Kevin Dai
Opt. Lett. 19(23) 1976-1978 (1994)

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