Analytical solutions for the electromagnetic fields of flattened and annular Gaussian laser modes. III. Arbitrary length pulses and spot sizes

Scott M. Sepke, Donald P. Umstadter

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

5 Scopus citations

Abstract

In the first two parts of this study, the electromagnetic field components were derived for infinitely long, flattened Gaussian laser beams [J. Opt. Soc. Am. B 23, 2157 and J. Opt. Soc. Am. B 23, 2166 (2006)]. These results are now extended without approximation to allow for finite laser pulses having an arbitrary duration beginning with the standard Gaussian beam profile and then generalizing these results to a flattened Gaussian. The resulting models thus allow for all pulse durations and spot sizes from infinite, paraxial beams to single-cycle, wavelength-size spots, with a savings of more than 2 orders of magnitude in computation time. Pulses having fewer than ten cycles exhibit significant modification from the monochromatic fields as a result of the finite bandwidth. Specifically, the energy in the focus is shown to decrease from the theoretical value of 86.5% to as low as 72.2% for a single-cycle pulse.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)2295-2302
Number of pages8
JournalJournal of the Optical Society of America B: Optical Physics
Volume23
Issue number11
DOIs
StatePublished - Nov 2006

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Statistical and Nonlinear Physics
  • Atomic and Molecular Physics, and Optics

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