Average patterns and coherent phenomena in wide aperture lasers

Using a realistic model of wide aperture, weakly astigmatic lasers we develop a framework to analyze experimental average intensity patterns. We use the model to explain the appearance of patterns in terms of the modes of the cavity and to show that the breaking of the symmetry of the average intensity patterns is caused by overlaps in the frequency spectra of nonvanishing of modes with different parity. This result can be used even in systems with very fast dynamics to detect experimentally overlaps of frequency spectra of modes.