Short-wavelength capillary lasers with tunable spatial coherence

Abstract

We present a method to continuously tune the degree of spatial coherence of a short-wavelength laser. The method is based on the optical properties of the hollow-waveguide Fabry-Perot resonators with external mirrors. The potential of the technique is demonstrated experimentally on a capillary nitrogen laser (/spl lambda/=337.1 nm). The results of the work can be used for the construction of short-wavelength lasers with tunable spatial coherence. >