《New developments in laser resonators》.pdf

Invited Paper New developments in laser resonators A. E. Siegman Stanford University, Edward L. Ginzton Laboratory Stanford, California 94305 ABSTRACT This paper gives brief descriptions of three recent developments not so much in laser resonators themselves as in the tools for analyzing and measuring the quality of laser beams and resonators. These tools include personal computer programs for analyzing laser beams and resonators; a new method for characterizing and measuring the beam quality of a laser output beam; and a new ray-pulse method of analysis for describing beams and resonators which involve any combination ofultrashort optical pulses, broadband optical signals, and dispersive optical elements. 1. RESONATOR ANALYSIS USING PERSONAL COMPUTERS The continuing evolution (if not revolution) in personal computer technology, combined with new and improved numerical algorithms, makes it possible at this point to do numerical beam propagation and resonator design cal- culations on desktop personal computers which used to require mainframe computers and sometimes overnight runs in batch mode. At the same time the graphics capabilities of modern personal computers permit one to display the results of these calculations with near-instantaneous response as on-screen graphs and plots, rather than wading through foot-thick piles of computer printout to view and understand these results. My research group in particular has recently developed four interactive beam and resonator design programs which run on the Apple Macintosh series of personal computers and are very useful to designers of l