Selective excitation of high-order laser modes and its application to vortex array laser beam generation

This study reports a method of creating vortex array laser beams by superposing high-order laser modes on their rotated replicas. An interferometer configuration was used to convert these high-order laser modes to vortex array laser beams containing multi vortexes aligned in an almost square manner. To generate this kind vortex array laser beams, this study reports systematic approaches to the selective excitation of high-order laser modes in end-pumped solid-state lasers with laser resonators and asymmetric pumping. The resulting vortex array laser beams can be used as optical tweezers and atom traps in the form of two-dimensional arrays, or to study the transfer of angular momentum to micro particles or atoms (Bose-Einstein condensate).