Generation of very high-order high purity Gaussian modes via spatial light modulation

Abstract

We experimentally demonstrate the conversion of a fundamental $\text{TEM}_{00}$ laser mode at 1064\,nm to higher order Hermite-Gaussian modes (HG) of arbitrary order via a commercially available liquid crystal Spatial Light Modulator (SLM). We particularly studied the $\text{HG}_{5,5}/\text{HG}_{10,10}/\text{HG}_{15,15}$ modes. A two-mirror plano-spherical cavity filters the higher-order modes spatially. We analyze the cleaned modes via a three-mirror diagnosis cavity and measure a mode purity of 96/93/78\% and a conversion efficiency of 6.6\%/3.7\%/1.7\% respectively. The generated high-purity Hermite-Gaussian modes can be employed for the mitigation of mirror thermal noise in optical cavities for both optical clocks and gravitational wave (GW) detectors. HG modes are then converted into high order LG modes which can be of particular interest in cold atom physics