Abstract

The characteristics of unstable optical cavities have been investigated experimentally using a pulsed argon laser. We have studied the amplitude and phase distribution in the transverse modes of unstable cavities, as well as the characteristics of the output beam. Our experimental results are in qualitative agreement with existing theory. We have also demonstrated that an unstable cavity can be used to provide variable output coupling for a laser.

© 1967 Optical Society of America

Numerical solution of the exact cavity equations of motion for an unstable optical resonator

Mark S. Bowers and Stephen E. Moody
Appl. Opt. 29(27) 3905-3915 (1990)

Iterative Diffraction Calculations of Transverse Mode Distributions in Confocal Unstable Laser Resonators

David B. Rensch and Arthur N. Chester
Appl. Opt. 12(5) 997-1010 (1973)

Optical Resonators in the Unstable Region

S. R. Barone
Appl. Opt. 6(5) 861-863 (1967)

Temporal behavior of an unstable optical cavity

Olivier Emile, Dominique Chauvat, Albert Le Floch, and Fabien Bretenaker
Opt. Lett. 24(1) 22-24 (1999)

Theoretical analysis of stable and unstable aspherical laser cavities

S. H. Chao and David L. Shealy
Appl. Opt. 27(1) 75-79 (1988)