Acta Photonica Sinica, Volume. 35, Issue 3, 431(2006)

A Comparative Study on Two Definitions of the M2 Factor of Nonparaxial Flattened Gaussian Beams

Kang Xiaoping1,2、* and Lü Baida1
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  • 1[in Chinese]
  • 2[in Chinese]
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    Based on the second-order moment of the power density,the explicit expressions for the beam width and far-field divergence angle of nonparaxial flattened Gaussian(FG) beams are derived. It is found that as w0/λ(waist width-to-wavelength ratio)→0,the far-field divergence angle approaches an asymptotic value of θmax=63.435°,indenpent of the beam order. Then,the nonparaxial Gaussian beam instead of the paraxial one is chosen as the ideal beam,the M2 factor of nonparaxial FG beams is studied and compared with the conventional definition of the M2 factor. In the nonparaxial regime,the M2 factor of nonparaxial FG beams depends not only on the beam order,but also on w0/λ. According to our definition,as w0/λ→0,the M2 factor of nonparaxial FG beams does not equal to zero,but approaches 0.913,0.882 and 0.886 for the beam orders N=1,2,3,respectively. In particular,for N→∞ the M2 factor takes its minimum M2min=0.816.

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    Kang Xiaoping, Lü Baida. A Comparative Study on Two Definitions of the M2 Factor of Nonparaxial Flattened Gaussian Beams[J]. Acta Photonica Sinica, 2006, 35(3): 431

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    Paper Information

    Category: Physical Optics

    Received: Nov. 15, 2004

    Accepted: --

    Published Online: Jun. 3, 2010

    The Author Email: Xiaoping Kang (xpk710@126.com)

    DOI:

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