Proposal of an interferometric method for the transverse mode control of a laser

Abstract

We have demonstrated that the fundamental mode of a three-mirror laser cavity including a Michelson mirror (MM) can be single LGp0 like in shape with a mode order p controlled by the microscopic position of one of the MM mirrors. This new interferometric intra-cavity laser beam shaping technique presents the advantage, over the usual ones, of a certain agility in adjusting the transverse mode order since no realignment is required. We have given the first modelling, to the best of our knowledge, of a three-mirror cavity including an interferometric mirror allowing the determination of its fundamental mode by using a modal decomposition method.