A comparative study of elegant and standard Hermite-Gaussian beams

The closed-form expressions for the propagation of elegant Hermite-Gaussian (H-G) beams passing though a first-order optical ABCD system are derived by means of which a comparative study of the propagation properties of standard and elegant H-G beams is performed. Furthermore, the beam propagation factor and/or power in the bucket (PIB) are chosen as the criteria for characterizing beam quality, and the beam quality of standard and elegant H-G beams is compared. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.