Measuring and modelling the beam quality in cesium DPALs

We report on recent experimental and theoretical studies of cesium laser, where we focused on the beam propagation factor M2 in flowing-gas Cs DPALs with stable optical resonators and of its dependence on the resonator geometry. The measured results were modeled by multi-transverse-mode model [Auslender et al., Opt. Express 25, 19767 (2017)]. Conditions for substantial improvement of the output laser beam quality, reducing M2 to close to unity, are found. In particular we show how changing the length of the resonator, and/or the radius of curvature of the high reflection mirror, leaving all other parameters of the laser unchanged, makes it possible to control the beam quality.