Diffractive origin of fractal resonator modes

New, GHC, Yates, M, Woerdman, JP and Mcdonald, GS 2001, 'Diffractive origin of fractal resonator modes' , Optics Communications, 193 (1-6) , pp. 261-266.

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Abstract

The modes of unstable optical resonators possess fractal character. In this paper, the fundamental question of how and why fractals originate in one of the simplest linear optical systems is addressed. The answer is related to the fact that unstable resonator modes consist of a superposition of Fresnel diffraction patterns with effectively random phases. A connection is established between the mode eigenvalues and their fractal dimensions, and the consequent prediction that higher-order modes should exhibit lower fractal dimension is confirmed by numerical demonstration.

Item Type:	Article
Themes:	Energy Media, Digital Technology and the Creative Economy Subjects outside of the University Themes
Schools:	Schools > School of Computing, Science and Engineering > Salford Innovation Research Centre
Journal or Publication Title:	Optics Communications
Publisher:	Elsevier Science B.V.
Refereed:	Yes
ISSN:	ISSN: 00304018
Depositing User:	GS McDonald
Date Deposited:	14 Oct 2011 09:34
Last Modified:	09 Aug 2017 21:03
URI:	http://usir.salford.ac.uk/id/eprint/18332

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