Fractal multiple reduction imaging lasers

All-optical realisations of multiple reduction copy machines (MRCMs) are tr eated as laser resonators. Intra-cavity elements image a plane inside the r esonator onto various parts of itself. In this plane, the intensity cross-s ection of the lowest-loss mode is a diffraction-limited approximation to a self-similar (or self-affine) fractal. After inclusion of a coherent gain m edium resonators of this type constitute lasers with self-similar eigenmode s. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.