AN ANALYSIS OF MULTIREFLECTOR OPTICAL RESONATORS,
Abstract
Geometrical optics and self-consistent field techniques are used to determine the properties of multireflector optical resonators in which the field distributions are multiply-reflected and travel in clockwise and counter-clockwise directions in the cavity. Two types of resonators are considered, symmetric N-mirror resonator whose axis is a regular N-sided polygon and a nonsymmetric four-mirror resonator whose axis is a parallelogram. The geometrical optics approach leads to sets of coupled nonlinear difference equations which describe the paths of optical rays in the resonators. Approximate solutions to the equations are obtained and a calculation of the first correction term is carried out in the case of the symmetric cavity. The approximate analysis also may be formulated in a chain matrix representation. Stability conditions are obtained. The set of difference equations may be reduced to recurrence relations which enable the path of an optical ray in the cavity to be calculated exactly using a digital computer. (Author)
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Feb 27, 1964
- Accession Number
- AD0437795
Entities
People
- Peter O. Clark
Organizations
- California Institute of Technology