Generation of vortex array beams from a thin-slice solid-state laser with shaped wide-aperture laser-diode pumping

We demonstrate vortex array-beam generations from a thin-slice, wide-aperture, solid-state laser with laser-diode end-pumping. Radial and rectangular vortex arrays were found to be formed in a controlled fashion with symmetric and asymmetric pump-beam profiles, respectively. Most of these vortices exhibited single-frequency oscillations arising from a spontaneous process of transverse mode locking of degenerate or nearly degenerate modes assisted by the laser nonlinearity. Single-frequency rectangular array beams consisting of a large number of vortices, e.g., closely packed 25, 36, or 46 vortex pixels, were generated, originating from Ince-Gaussian modes excited by the asymmetric pumping. (C) 2008 Optical Society of America