Abstract

In recent years the optical conical refraction (CR) phenomenon has attracted considerable attention due to its potential application in particle trapping [1], beam conversion [2] or free space optical communications [3], for instance. Particularly interesting is the use of CR for lasing. In this case, intracavity active biaxial crystals cut normal to one of their optic axes so that they yield CR are used, see Ref. [4] as an example. In passive biaxial crystals there have been demonstrated transverse profiles formed by single [5] and multiple [6] rings, azimuthally crescent [6] and flat-top [7] structures as well as with singular (dark) point at the beam center [8]. In contrast, in active biaxial crystals only crescent-like output patterns have been reported so far [4].

© 2015 IEEE