Astigmatic-waist TEMoo-output dye laser design

An interesting optical design problem is to design a laser cavity which will couple an astigmatic waist to a TEMoo output. The astigmatic waist is used to reduce the thermal effects introduced in a dye laser when pumped at high power levels. The use of components which are inexpensive and readily available was one of the requirements in the design. We looked at the problem from an aberration stand point. We present two designs for a dye laser cavity which couples an astigmatic waist to a TEMoo output. Each design uses a tilted spherical mirror to introduce the astigmatism needed to produce the astigmatic waist. A second mirror tilted in an orthogonal direction is used to remove the astigmatism. The tilted mirrors also introduce coma into the system. One design uses symmetry to remove the coma. The second design uses an asymmetric design which removes the coma and requires fewer elements.