Abstract
Using an rf-excited strip-line CO2 laser with large lateral dimensions (a high Fresnel number) in a hemiconfocal optical cavity configuration, we observe modes that are distinctively off axial. They can be viewed as folded Gaussian beams with trajectories in the shapes of the letters M and W. Either of these modes can be isolated by suppressing the other mode through the introduction of a suitably positioned obstacle into the cavity. Computer simulations of the radiation propagation in the cavity yielded field distributions conforming to the observed pattern.
© 1989 Optical Society of America
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