Enhanced excess noise in laser cavities with tilted mirrors

Enhancement of the transverse excess-noise factor is theoretically predicted in optical laser cavities with tilted end mirrors and nonuniform transverse loss. In particular, it is shown that in a loss-guided laser close to the plane-plane geometric instability boundary the excess-noise factor that is induced by mirror tilting may largely exceed that predicted for the aligned cavity. This excess noise is related to beam walk-off induced by mirror tilting, which makes possible transient amplification of noise in the transverse plane.