LASER CAVITIES WITH INHOMOGENEOUS MIRRORS.

It is shown that one can produce a radical change in the intensity distribution in a laser beam if the exit-mirror transmission is dependent on the transverse coordinates. Methods are described for making mirrors with inhomogeneous transmission and having identical reflection phases over the surface. Two examples of uses are considered: for producing a beam with a uniform intensity distribution and for extracting energy from a segment of a higher transverse mode. It is shown that the total laser power is then hardly reduced by comparison with energy extraction through a homogeneous mirror.