High power two-color orbital angular momentum beam generation using vertical external cavity surface emitting lasers

We report the design and experimental results for a two-chip T-cavity vertical external cavity surface emitting laser utilized for two-color collinear generation of Hermite-Gaussian and Laguerre-Gaussian (LG) transverse modes. A combination of intracavity mode-control elements and an external astigmatic mode converter was used to achieve high power LG modes. By incorporating intracavity birefringent filters in each arm of the T-cavity, wide wavelength tuning in excess of 12 nm of each mode is demonstrated. Output power exceeding 1.5 W is measured for all the modes.