Efficient formation of a high-quality beam from a pure high-order Hermite-Gaussian mode.

We present a relatively simple method for efficiently transforming a single high-order mode into a nearly Gaussian beam of much higher quality. The method is based on dividing the mode into equal parts that are then combined coherently. We illustrate the method by transforming a Hermite-Gaussian (1, 0) mode with M(x)(2)=3 into a nearly Gaussian beam with M(x)(2)=1. 045 . Experimental results are presented and compared with theoretical results.