THEORY OF OPTICAL RESONATORS WITH ATTENUATED TOTAL INTERNAL-REFLECTION PRISMS USED AS MIRRORS WITH CONTROLLABLE TRANSMISSION

The theory of optical resonators with attenuated total internal reflec tion prisms used for outcoupling radiation from a resonator is develop ed. It can be used to predict and describe natural modes of a resonato r for an arbitrary surface profile of a perturbing prism. The theory s pecifies a quantitative relation between geometric parameters of the p rism surface and characteristics of an optical resonator, such as the field distribution, mode selection, and mode loss. It describes the me chanism of controlling natural resonator modes by varying the gap betw een the main prism and the control prisms.