High power Bessel-like laser beam by thin disk geometry

Diffraction-free beam and optical invariant field are special cases of optical wave propagation that have caught general attention in the last decade. Temporal solitons were the first class of optical signals to be recognized as being invariant under propagation (Hasegawa and Tapert, 1973) and to be experimentally demonstrated (Mollenaure et al., 1980). But, they require a nonlinearity to preserve their shape. It was pointed out by Durnin that nonlinearity is not a necessity for invariant propagation; indeed, he proved that Bessel beams can propagate in a purely linear material without deformation (Durnin, 1987; Dallaire et al., 2009). On the other hand, Lopez and Helmerson have recently demonstrated that non-diffracting beams with arbitrary transverse shapes can be generated (Lopez-Mariscal and Helmerson, 2010). They have tailored a nondiffracting beam of an arbitrary pattern via an azimuthal modulation of the angular spectra of Helmholtz-Gauss wave fields. The diffraction-free character of ideal Bessel beams has triggered immense interest, though, it was soon realized that, due to practical considerations, only quasiBessel beams can be produced (Durnin, 1987; Durnin et al., 1987). Gori et al. derived the complete solution describing the evolution of transverse Bessel-Gauss beams during propagation (Gori et al., 1987). Bessel and Bessel–Gauss beams have been widely discussed in the literature because of their potential applications in optical alignment, surveying, and optical interconnections (Abramochkin and Volostnikov, 1993; Cha ́vez-Cerda et al., 1996; Paterson and Smith, 1996; Piestun and Shamir, 1998; Gutie ́rrez-Vega et al., 2000; Gutiérrez-Vega et al., 2003; Tsangaris et al., 2003). There are several passive and active methods for production of Bessel-like beams. For instance, passive optical systems fed by laser light using a ring aperture and a positive lens (Durnin, 1987; Durnin et al., 1987), refractive or diffractive axicons (Indebetouw, 1989; Scott and McArdle, 1992), holographic methods (Turunen et al., 1988; Vasara et al., 1989), Fabry–Perot interferometers (Horváth et al., 1997), or diffractive phase elements (Cong et al., 1998). Active schemes to produce Bessel-type modes in laser resonators include, e.g., arrangements based on annular intracavity elements (Durnin and Eberly, 1989; Litvin and Forbes, 2008),