Mode control

MODE CONTROL

The transverse modes for a given stable resonator have differ- ent beam diameters and divergences. The lower the order of the mode is, the smaller the beam diameter, the narrower the far-field divergence, and the lower the M2 value. For example, the TEM01* doughnut mode is approximately 1.5 times the diameter of the fun- damental TEM00 mode, and the Laguerre TEM10 target mode is twice the diameter of the TEM00 mode. The theoretical M2 values for the TEM00, TEM01*, and TEM10 modes are 1.0, 2.3, and 3.6, respectively (R. J. Freiberg et al., “Properties of Low Order Transverse Modes in Argon Ion Lasers”). Because of its smooth intensity profile, low divergence, and ability to be focused to a dif- fraction-limited spot, it is usually desirable to operate in the low- est-order mode possible, TEM00. Lasers, however, tend to operate at the highest-order mode possible, either in addition to, or instead of, TEM00 because the larger beam diameter may allow them to extract more energy from the lasing medium.

The primary method for reducing the order of the lasing mode is to add sufficient loss to the higher-order modes so that they can- not oscillate without significantly increasing the losses at the desired lower-order mode. In most lasers this is accomplished by placing a fixed or variable aperture inside the laser cavity. Because of the sig- nificant differences in beam diameter, the aperture can cause sig- nificant diffraction losses for the higher-order modes without impacting the lower-order modes. As an example, consider the case of a typical argon-ion laser with a long-radius cavity and a variable mode-selecting aperture.

When the aperture is fully open, the laser oscillates in the axi- ally symmetric TEM10 target mode. As the aperture is slowly reduced, the output changes smoothly to the TEM01* doughnut mode, and finally to the TEM00 fundamental mode.

In many lasers, the limiting aperture is provided by the geome- try of the laser itself. For example, by designing the cavity of a helium neon laser so that the diameter of the fundamental mode at the end of the laser bore is approximately 60 percent of the bore diameter, the laser will naturally operate in the TEM00 mode.