Transverse Modes
The diverse applications of laser beam sources require control of all properties of the light: from the wavelength spectrum to the temporal behavior to the spatial form. Structured light, i.e., light distributions whose properties vary as a function of space or time, are used for optical communication technologies, advanced imaging or innovative optical measurement methods, for example. These light distributions are sometimes transverse modes of a laser resonator, or they can be represented as a superposition of these modes. Complex light fields can therefore be generated directly in a resonator. In addition, the basis of transverse modes opens up the possibility of generating spatiotemporal dynamics, as the modes differ not only spatially but also spectrally. In so-called transverse mode-locking, this leads to beams that scan spatially at ultra-fast speeds.