Stability of a short Rayleigh length laser resonator

Motivated by the prospect of constructing a short Rayleigh length free-electron laser in a high-vibration environment, we demonstrate the use of a collection of rays to study the effect of mirror vibration and distortion on the behavior of the fundamental optical mode of a cold-cavity resonator. We...

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Published inPhysical review special topics. PRST-AB. Accelerators and beams Vol. 8; no. 4; p. 040703
Main Authors Crooker, P., Blau, J., Colson, W.
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published College Park American Physical Society 01.04.2005
Subjects
Cavity resonators
Diameters
Free electron lasers
Radius of curvature
Vibration
Wave fronts
Wave propagation
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Summary:Motivated by the prospect of constructing a short Rayleigh length free-electron laser in a high-vibration environment, we demonstrate the use of a collection of rays to study the effect of mirror vibration and distortion on the behavior of the fundamental optical mode of a cold-cavity resonator. We find that the ray collection accurately describes both on-axis and off-axis optical beams. We show that a tilt or transverse shift of a mirror causes the optical mode to rock about the original resonator axis, while a longitudinal mirror shift or a change in the mirror’s radius of curvature causes the beam diameter at a mirror to successively dilate and contract on the mirror. Results are in excellent agreement with analytic calculations and wave front propagation simulations as long as the mirrors remain large with respect to the beam diameter.
ISSN:1098-4402
1098-4402
2469-9888
DOI:10.1103/PhysRevSTAB.8.040703