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Updated: May 31, 2026

The Generation of Higher-order Laguerre-Gauss Optical Beams for High-precision Interferometry
Published on: August 12, 2013
Generalized beam quality factor of aberrated truncated Gaussian laser beams
Cosmas Mafusire1, Andrew Forbes
1Council for Scientific and Industrial Research National Laser Centre, P.O. Box 395, Pretoria, South Africa.
Abstract:
We outline a theory for the calculation of the beam quality factor of an aberrated laser beam. We provide closed-form equations that show that the beam quality factor of an aberrated Gaussian beam depends on all primary aberrations except tilt, defocus, and x-astigmatism. The model is verified experimentally by implementing aberrations as digital holograms in the laboratory.
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