Design of novel laser cavity with diffractive phase elements

Abstract

A new method based on the general theory of amplitude-phase retrieval is proposed for designing the diffractive phase elements (DPEs) used in the laser cavity that can produce the desired mode with the specified shape of beam. Simulation results show that the laser cavity with the designed DPEs can successfully generate uniform square and triangle ring patterns. The loss of these fundamental modes is negligibly small and the separation of adjacent transverse modes is large enough to discriminate the fundamental mode from the higher-order modes.