Aberration-driven tilted emission in degenerate cavities

Journal Article (2024)
Author(s)

S. V. Gurevich (Universität Münster, University of the Balearic Islands)

F. Maucher (University of the Balearic Islands, TU Delft - Mechanical Engineering)

J. Javaloyes (University of the Balearic Islands)

Research Group
Optical Technologies
DOI related publication
https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevResearch.6.013166 Final published version
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Publication Year
2024
Language
English
Research Group
Optical Technologies
Journal title
Physical Review Research
Issue number
1
Volume number
6
Article number
013166
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Abstract

The compensation of chromatic dispersion opened new avenues and extended the level of control upon pattern formation in the temporal domain. In this paper, we propose the use of a nearly degenerate laser cavity as a general framework allowing for the exploration of higher contributions to diffraction in the spatial domain. Our approach leverages the interplay between optical aberrations and the proximity to the self-imaging condition, which allows us to cancel or reverse paraxial diffraction. As an example, we show how spherical aberrations materialize into a transverse bi-Laplacian operator and, thereby, explain the stabilization of temporal solitons traveling off-axis in an unstable mode-locked broad-area surface-emitting laser. We disclose an analogy between these regimes and the dynamics of a quantum particle in a double-well potential.