Dual-cavity Nd:YAG laser with Laguerre-Gaussian (LG0n) mode output

Direct excitation of an arbitrary Laguerre-Gaussian (LG0n) mode with helical wavefronts in a diode-end-pumped solid state laser employing a dual-cavity configuration is reported. Through simple adjustments of the intra-cavity apertures in the dual-cavity laser configuration, the spatial gain distribution and the cavity loss could be optimized for the targeted LG0 n mode. This approach has been applied to a diode-pumped Nd: YAG laser to achieve selective lasing of the LG01, LG02, and LG03 modes. Also, an optical vortex laser beam was produced directly from the laser resonator by determining the wavefront handedness of each LG mode output using an intra-cavity etalon. The prospects of further power scaling and laser performance improvements will be discussed.