The article outlines an approach to mode selection in a microchip laser through judicious shaping of the pump light to create a high modal overlap with the desired mode. The authors demonstrate the principle by creating a donut-shaped pump profile in the focal plane of a converging lens, and use this profile to longitudinally pump a monolithic microchip laser where the output is a Laguerre–Gaussian mode of radial index p=0 and azimuthal index l=1 (LG0l), or vortex beam, of power ~12 mW with a slope efficiency of 17%. This approach of diffractive pump shaping in the Fourier domain is advantageous as it allows for high pump intensity even with low pumping powers, thus ensuring sufficient gain is achieved for laser oscillation.
Reference:
Naidoo, D, Godin, T, Fromager, M et al. 2011. Transverse mode selection in a monolithic microchip laser. Optics Communications, Vol 284(23), pp 5475-5479
Naidoo, D., Godin, T., Fromager, M., Cagniot, E., Passilly, N., Forbes, A., & Aït-Ameur, K. (2011). Transverse mode selection in a monolithic microchip laser. http://hdl.handle.net/10204/5253
Naidoo, Darryl, T Godin, M Fromager, E Cagniot, N Passilly, A Forbes, and K Aït-Ameur "Transverse mode selection in a monolithic microchip laser." (2011) http://hdl.handle.net/10204/5253
Naidoo D, Godin T, Fromager M, Cagniot E, Passilly N, Forbes A, et al. Transverse mode selection in a monolithic microchip laser. 2011; http://hdl.handle.net/10204/5253.
This is the author’s version of a work that was accepted for publication in Optics Communications. Changes resulting from the publishing process, such as peer review, editing, corrections, structural formatting, and other quality control mechanisms may not be reflected in this document. Changes may have been made to this work since it was submitted for publication. A definitive version was subsequently published in Optics Communications, Vol 284(23), pp 5475-5479
