Abstract

A laser resonator is described in which both reflective and refractive surfaces are used as parts of the “resonating circuit.” The basic geometry of the resonator, termed conjugate-concentric resonator, is that of a simple imaging system in which the passive lens is replaced by an active one while the external concentric mirrors occupy an object and an image surface. The eigenvalue problem for this resonator is formulated in both Cartesian and polar coordinates and the corresponding eigenvalues and eigenfunctions are computed numerically. It is then shown that the basic property of this resonator is its high angular degeneracy. This property makes it well suited for the application of internal spatial filtering techniques. The practically interesting case of a cosine-shaped spatial filter is considered in some detail.

© 1965 Optical Society of America

Addendum: Conjugate-Concentric Laser Resonator

R. V. Pole
J. Opt. Soc. Am. 55(5) 579-579 (1965)

Optical Resonator Modes—Rectangular Reflectors of Spherical Curvature*

William Streifer
J. Opt. Soc. Am. 55(7) 868-875 (1965)

Resonant Modes of Optic Cavities of Small Fresnel Numbers

Leonard Bergstein and Harry Schachter
J. Opt. Soc. Am. 55(10) 1226-1233 (1965)

Optical Resonator Modes—Circular Reflectors of Spherical Curvature*

John C. Heurtley and William Streifer
J. Opt. Soc. Am. 55(11) 1472-1479 (1965)

Laser Deflection with the Conjugate Plano-Concentric Resonator

R. A. Myers, R. V. Pole, and J. Nuñez
Appl. Opt. 4(1) 140-141 (1965)