Generation of high-power spatially structured beams using vertical external cavity surface emitting lasers

Lukowski, Michal; Meyer, Jason T.; Hessenius, Chris; Wright, E. M.; Fallahi, Mahmoud

doi:10.1364/oe.25.025504

Cited by 14 publications

(8 citation statements)

References 32 publications

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“…The first structured scalar beams from a laser were created by amplitude control inside the cavity, using wires to produce Hermite–Gaussian modes, later repeated using custom wire systems and printed masks for vertical‐cavity surface‐emitting laser (VECSEL) mode control . Analogous to this is to create symmetric Laguerre–Gaussian modes by circular and annular apertures, and opaque stops (circular beam blocks).…”

Section: Structured Light Lasersmentioning

confidence: 99%

Structured Light from Lasers

Forbes

2019

Laser & Photonics Reviews

248

126

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Structured light is derived from the ability to tailor light, usually referring to the spatial control of its amplitude, phase, and polarization. Although a venerable topic that dates back to the very first laser designs, structuring light at the source has seen an explosion in activity over the past decade, fuelled by a modern toolkit that exploits the versatility of diffractive structures, liquid crystals, metasurfaces/metamaterials, and exotic laser geometries, as well as a myriad of applications that range from imaging, microscopy, and laser material processing to optical communication. Here, the recent progress in creating and controlling structured light is reviewed, with particular emphasis on structuring light at the source: structured light lasers. The various design approaches, including pump shaping, cavity geometries, and the use of custom intracavity optical elements, implemented in a variety of lasers from microchip solutions to high‐power fibers are covered in a tutorial style. The history and latest developments in the field are reviewed, elucidating the various structured light patterns that have been created from lasers, including orbital angular momentum and vector states of light. Finally, the present challenges and limitations are highlighted, along with comments on likely future trends.

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Section: Structured Light Lasersmentioning

confidence: 99%

Structured Light from Lasers

Forbes

2019

Laser & Photonics Reviews

248

126

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“…Using this method, the generation of higher order LG modes can also be obtained via the same AMC by using the MCE to generate higher-order HG modes. 25 Finally, due to the VECSEL open cavity design, the AMC can be incorporated into the laser resonator itself. Obtaining high-power circulating LG modes could be of great interest because it could open the path to producing circularly symmetric transverse modes at other wavelengths by means of nonlinear frequency conversion.…”

Section: -2mentioning

confidence: 99%

High power two-color orbital angular momentum beam generation using vertical external cavity surface emitting lasers

Lukowski

Hessenius

Meyer

et al. 2018

Applied Physics Letters

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We report the design and experimental results for a two-chip T-cavity vertical external cavity surface emitting laser utilized for two-color collinear generation of Hermite-Gaussian and Laguerre-Gaussian (LG) transverse modes. A combination of intracavity mode-control elements and an external astigmatic mode converter was used to achieve high power LG modes. By incorporating intracavity birefringent filters in each arm of the T-cavity, wide wavelength tuning in excess of 12 nm of each mode is demonstrated. Output power exceeding 1.5 W is measured for all the modes.

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“…Amongst these are examples of using structured pump light [70,71] to control the fundamental mode of the laser, thus potentially imparting a structured thermal gradient in the gain medium. In addition, there has been a move more recently towards higher powers with such structured light, either directly from the source [72][73][74][75][76][77] or by subsequent amplification [78][79][80][81][82][83]. Yet the impact of the structure of the light on the thermally induced effects has hitherto been neglected, as has the impact of the thermally induced phases and polarisation effects on the structure of the beam itself.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Thermal aberrations and structured light I: analytical model for structured pumps and probes

Scholes

Forbes

2021

Appl. Phys. B

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Structured light, where optical beams are tailored in amplitude, phase and polarisation to some desired profile, has become topical of late, fuelled by the ease at which such fields can be created internal and external to the source. In this treatise, part I of a two part series, we consider the thermal effects (stress, lensing and phase aberrations) associated with high-power structured light, where the structure may be the pump, optically inducing the thermal effects in the medium, or the probe, experiencing thermally induced optical aberrations. We outline a general theory for arbitrary structured light pumps and probes, reducing to the prior studies of Gaussian and flat-top beams as special cases. We illustrate the power of the model using the structure of light as a new degree of freedom with which to mitigate thermally induced optical aberrations. Finally, in part II of this composite work (Scholes and Forbes, Appl Phys B, 2021.

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Generation of high-power spatially structured beams using vertical external cavity surface emitting lasers

Cited by 14 publications

References 32 publications

Structured Light from Lasers

Structured Light from Lasers

High power two-color orbital angular momentum beam generation using vertical external cavity surface emitting lasers

Thermal aberrations and structured light I: analytical model for structured pumps and probes

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