Laguerre-Gaussian beam generation via enhanced intracavity spherical aberration

Abstract

We demonstrate an end-pumped Laguerre-Gaussian (LG) mode-selectable Nd:YVO₄ laser utilizing enhanced intracavity spherical aberration. The cavity was designed to exploit strong spherical aberration generated by an expanded beam, incident on a short-focal-length lens, which enabled oscillation of cavity modes of different order. This compact-cavity laser could operate efficiently with high-order LG mode, with the order of this mode being selectively changed by simply adjusting the distance between the short-focal-length lens and the output coupler. Scalar LG modes from LG_0,±10 to up to LG_0,±33 were observed in the experiment. The output power of the LG_{0, ±33} mode was 1.87 W under an absorbed pump power of 6.6 W.