Generation of high power and high stability azimuthally polarized beams in a Nd:YAG laser

Generation of high stability and high power azimuthally polarized beams is demonstrated in a Nd:YAG laser by inserting an optimum aperture in the cavity. The location and the size of the aperture are optimized by analyzing the mode-radius, stability and mode selectivity of the cavity with a transfer matrix method. Experiments are performed in a Nd:YAG laser with a flat-flat resonator, and the results are concordant with the theoretical predictions. A 10 W azimuthally polarized beam with the standard deviation of the output power less than 0.6% is obtained.