EE 231, Lasers Spring 2007

Problem Set 1 Due 5PM 18 April

Problem 1: Gaussian Beams to the Moon

Apollo 11 astronauts left mirrors on the Moon, to be used for laser ranging experiments. Here, we consider
the details of sending a Gaussian beam from Earth to the Moon.

(a) Assume that you can create a Gaussian beam waist of 1/e2 intensity radius w0 at your location, and that
you want to illuminate a surface
λ a distance L away with the minimum possible diameter beam. Given that
the wavelength of the laser is , what radius w0 should you choose for the beam at your location?
(b) For that choice, how large is the 1/e2 intensity radius on the surface a distance
λ L away?
(c) Now suppose L=385000 km, the distance from the Earth to the Moon. If = 1550 nm, what radius w0
gives the minimum beam diameter on the moon? What fraction of the initial power of such a beam sent
from Earth would be incident on a 1-meter circular mirror on the Moon? Assume that the beam is perfectly
aligned with the mirror, and that there is no attenuation in the atmosphere.
(d) Repeat part (c), assuming a wavelength of 450 nm instead.
(e) Explain physically the difference between the results of parts (c) and (d).

Problem 2: Optical Data Storage

One of the commonest uses of lasers is to read and write data on media like CDs and DVDs. In such
systems, the data is stored as changes in the surface of the disk that alter the reflected fraction of the power
of a laser beam focused on disk. A key advantage of such systems over “near-field” storage systems like
conventional magnetic recording is that bits much smaller than the distance between the head and the
surface of the disk can be read and written. These looser mounting tolerances enable the removable media
used with CD and DVD systems.

Assume that the bits on a CD are marks about 0.5
m in diameter, that the laser used to read them has a
wavelength of 780 nm, and that the laser beam is Gaussian and is focused so that its 1/e2 intensity diameter
is equal to the mark size.

(a) Ideally, the focus of the laser beam lies on the surface of the disk. If the disk moves away from its ideal
√ larger than nominal, and the ability to resolve the
position, the size on the laser beam on the surface will be
bits will be degraded. If the acceptable tolerance is a 2 increase in the size of the spot, how far can the
focus of the beam be from the nominal distance?
(b) If the focusing lens flies a height 1 mm above the disk, and its diameter is chosen to pass 99% of the
optical power reflected from the disc, what must the lens diameter be?

Problem 3: Reflecting Gaussian Beams from Mirrors

The phase variation across a transverse place (i.e., at constant z) for a diverging spherical wave with radius
of curvature |R| traveling in the +z direction has the form exp[-ik(x2+y2)/2|R|]. Find the transverse phase
variation of this same wave after reflecting off of the following mirrors:

(a) A planar mirror, normal to the z axis.

(b) A concave spherical mirror with radius Rm =|R|.
(c) A convex spherical mirror with radius Rm =|R|.

Problem 4: Gouy’s Phase

The rather innocuous-looking Gouy phase can have important implications in a variety of physical
situations. We will discuss in class the Gouy phase in relation to the resonant frequencies of a Fabry-Perot
interferometer. Another important case is the propagation of a beam containing more than one spatial
mode, i.e., the superposition of more than one Hermite-Gaussian mode.
EE 231, Lasers Spring 2007
Problem Set 1 Due 5PM 18 April

The set of Hermite-Gaussian modes is complete, that is, any field distribution can be written as the sum of
Hermite-Gaussian modes. For example, a field that is a top-hat in the x-direction and Gaussian in the y-
direction can be approximated as:

E ( x, y, z ) = ∑n = 0 an 0 En 0 ( x, y, z )
N
(1)

where En0(x, y, z) is the Hermite-Gaussian field given in lecture 2, slide 16, and the approximation gets
more precise as N increases. Let’s take the width of the top-hat pattern to be the same as the fundamental
beam waist width (L = w0). The first 11 non-zero coefficients an0 can be shown to be:
{a0,0, a2,0, a4,0, a6,0, a8,0, a10,0, a12,0, a14,0, a16,0, a18,0, a20,0} = {1.19176, 0.0044144, -0.0116784, 0.000861331,
-0.0000244256, -2.60741 10-7, 5.31336 10-8, -2.54244 10-9, 7.61611 10-11, -1.57559 10-12, 2.01701 10-14}

Note: The normalization for these coefficients is different than in the course notes. These coefficients
1/ 4 1/ 2
include the factor of  2   1  so you do not need to put it in again.
 π   2 n! 
n

(a) Plot the intensity, |E(x, 0, 0)|2 vs x/w0 for N = 2, 6, 10, and 20 to see how the approximation to a top-hat
improves with increasing N.

Since we know how each of the Enm evolves with z, we can obtain the field at any plane z simply by
computing the sum with the Enm evaluated at the plane of interest and summing them as in Eq. 1. For a
single-mode field, the Gouy phase does not affect the evolution of the intensity with z. For a multi-mode
field, the Gouy phase is essential to getting the correct result for the evolution of the intensity, as we
explore in this problem.

(b) First, plot the intensity as a function of x for y = 0 and z = (zR, 0.5zR, 2zR, 4zR) (normalize to the peak
intensity at z = 0), artificially setting the Gouy phase to zero. How does the pattern evolve? Considering
what you might anticipate from conventional diffraction theory, is this expected?
(c) Now repeat (b), but allowing the Gouy phase to take its real value. How does the result differ from that
in (b)? How does the result compare to the sin(x)/x result familiar from conventional diffraction theory?

It is clear that the Gouy phase is essential to recover even the most basic aspects of the correct diffraction
behavior of optical beams. One could in fact reconstruct all the results of conventional diffraction theory in
terms of such modal expansions, though this is not usually the most convenient formulation unless the
beam contains only a few modes.