Beam wander characteristics of cos and cosh-Gaussian beams

Abstract

Within the context of a general beam formulation, beam wander characteristics of cos and cosh-Gaussian beams are derived and numerically evaluated. In our graphs, the fundamental Gaussian beam is used as a benchmark for comparisons. The associated plots reveal that at small source sizes, a cos-Gaussian beam has the lowest beam wander, while this property is enhanced with increasing values of the displacement parameter. At large source sizes however, this advantage is taken over by cosh-Gaussian beam. Joint examination against the changing source sizes and propagation lengths shows that the range of source sizes, where the beam wander of cos-Gaussian beam remains lower, is enlarged as we go toward higher propagation lengths. Asymmetric beams tend to exhibit higher beam wanders both at small and large source sizes, but for the intermediate source size ranges, the beam wanders of asymmetric beams will fall below those of the symmetric beams. Explanations concerning these behaviors are offered. A historical account of beam wander formulation is also included.