Generation of radially polarised beams in Nd:YAG lasers

A multilayer mirror exhibiting polarisation-dependent reflectivities can be used to generate laser emission with prescribed polarisation distributions. In this paper we report on the generation of a radially polarised laser beam in a Nd:YAG laser. In YAG laser rods radially polarised modes completely avoid the problems of depolarisation and bifocussing, allowing for a better optimisation of resonators and beam quality.