Paper
15 October 2012 Coherent superposition of propagation-invariant laser beams
Author Affiliations +
Abstract
The coherent superposition of propagation-invariant laser beams represents an important beam-shaping technique, and results in new beam shapes which retain the unique property of propagation invariance. Propagation-invariant laser beam shapes depend on the order of the propagating beam, and include Hermite-Gaussian and Laguerre-Gaussian beams, as well as the recently introduced Ince-Gaussian beams which additionally depend on the beam ellipticity parameter. While the superposition of Hermite-Gaussian and Laguerre-Gaussian beams has been discussed in the past, the coherent superposition of Ince-Gaussian laser beams has not received significant attention in literature. In this paper, we present the formation of propagation-invariant laser beams based on the coherent superposition of Hermite-Gaussian, Laguerre-Gaussian, and Ince-Gaussian beams of different orders. We also show the resulting field distributions of the superimposed Ince-Gaussian laser beams as a function of the ellipticity parameter. By changing the beam ellipticity parameter, we compare the various shapes of the superimposed propagation-invariant laser beams transitioning from Laguerre-Gaussian beams at one ellipticity extreme to Hermite-Gaussian beams at the other extreme.
© (2012) COPYRIGHT Society of Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineers (SPIE). Downloading of the abstract is permitted for personal use only.
R. Soskind, M. Soskind, and Y. G. Soskind "Coherent superposition of propagation-invariant laser beams", Proc. SPIE 8490, Laser Beam Shaping XIII, 849007 (15 October 2012); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.932233
Lens.org Logo
CITATIONS
Cited by 1 scholarly publication.
Advertisement
Advertisement
RIGHTS & PERMISSIONS
Get copyright permission  Get copyright permission on Copyright Marketplace
KEYWORDS
Beam shaping

Superposition

Laser beam propagation

Modes of laser operation

Laser resonators

Optical vortices

Gaussian beams

RELATED CONTENT

Generation of shape-invariant flat-top laser beams
Proceedings of SPIE (March 03 2015)
Generation of propagation invariant vector flat-top beams
Proceedings of SPIE (September 14 2018)
Intracavity vortex beam generation
Proceedings of SPIE (September 07 2011)
Propagation dynamics of helical Hermite-Gaussian beams
Proceedings of SPIE (September 26 2007)

Back to Top