Laser components and devices

Mode structure of a resonator with non-Gaussian components. I. Axial mode structures

O. O. Silichev

Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology

Abstract: A study is made of the mode structure of a resonator containing a component with non-Gaussian optical inhomogeneities. Use is made of geometric optics to show that, in addition to the traditional axial structure, fundamentally new non-Gaussian mode systems can appear in a non-Gaussian resonator. In particular, new systems include multipass off-axial structures, regions with stochastic behaviour of rays, and ray fluxes with a complex structure. An analytic investigation is reported of the structure of the axial region. It is shown that for certain resonator parameters a radical modification of the axial mode structure may be induced by even small aberrations. Complex ray fluxes and paraxial multipass systems are formed. The analytic results are illustrated by a large number of examples of numerical modelling of the behaviour of rays in a non-Gaussian resonator.

PACS: 42.60.Da, 42.15.Fr

Received: 09.09.1993

 English version: Quantum Electronics, 1994, 24:5, 416–424

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