Aberrated optical cavities

Optical cavities are an enabling technology of modern quantum science: From their essential role in the operation lasers to applications as flywheels atomic clocks and interaction-enhancing components optics experiments, developing a quantitative understanding mode shapes energies optical has been crucial for growth field. Nonetheless, standard treatment using paraxial quadratic fails capture influence aberrations present with high finesse, small waist, and/or many degenerate modes. In this work, we compute spectrum resonators, allowing both nonparaxial beam propagation beyond-quadratic mirrors lenses. Generalizing prior works, develop complete theory resonator aberrations, including intracavity lenses, nonplanar geometries, arbitrary mirror forms. Harnessing these tools, reconcile near absence aberration work Schine et al. [N. al., Nature (London) 534, 671 (2016)] strongly evident seemingly similar cavity Clark [L. W. 582, 41 (2020)]. We further validate our approach by comparison family lens realized laboratory, finding good agreement. This opens prospects smaller waists more