Generation of high-power spatially structured beams using vertical external cavity surface emitting lasers

In this paper, we demonstrate the generation of high-power and spatially structured beams using vertical external cavity surface emitting lasers (VECSEL). At the fundamental wavelength, an intracavity mode-control element is first employed to generate a range of Hermite-Gaussian (HG) modes in a linear cavity. The same HG modes are then excited and frequency doubled in a V-cavity geometry to generate a rich variety of high-power spatially structured beams. The results compare well with our numerical modeling.