Axially symmetric hollow beams using refractive conical lenses

We explore the possibility of producing several beam shapes with conical or cylindrical geometry using conical lenses. We discuss optical schemes for generation of hollow laser beams; with 3D intensity distribution surrounding all directions, a dark core region can be obtained. These optical fields are important for the confinement of cold atoms in 2D or 3D blue dipole potentials. (C) 2002 Published by Elsevier Science Ltd.