Abstract

The diffractive effects of a single laser rod in an unstable super-Gaussian coupled cavity are modeled for a range of cavity configurations, with an intracavity, zero-thickness aperture. After fundamental mode propagation through a maximally flat output coupler, beam quality (M²) and far-field power loss values are related. Beam quality is most sensitive to cavity magnification and aperture Fresnel number, both correlated to the aperture-equivalent Fresnel number. In contrast, variation of M² with aperture position is sufficiently conservative to predict the intensity profile of a solid-state laser with a typical gain length, in good agreement with experimental data.

© 2005 Optical Society of America

Numerical simulation of a high-average-power diode-pumped ytterbium-doped YAG laser with an unstable cavity and a super-Gaussian mirror

Gilbert L. Bourdet
Appl. Opt. 44(6) 1018-1027 (2005)

Diffractive analysis of unstable optical resonators with super-Gaussian mirrors

Mark S. Bowers
Opt. Lett. 17(19) 1319-1321 (1992)

Unstable laser resonators with super-Gaussian mirrors

S. De Silvestri, P. Laporta, V. Magni, O. Svelto, and B. Majocchi
Opt. Lett. 13(3) 201-203 (1988)

Theoretical models and analytic expressions for buildup time of pulsed confocal unstable optical parametric oscillators with uniform or Gaussian reflectivity mirrors

Shanshan Zou, Mali Gong, Qiang Liu, Ping Yan, and Gang Chen
Appl. Opt. 44(30) 6456-6461 (2005)

Super-Gaussian resonators for long-pulse XeCl lasers

S. E. Kovalenko, V. Losev, and M. R. Perrone
Appl. Opt. 33(18) 4082-4086 (1994)