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Hello everyone,

I have to simulate the propagation of a supergaussian beam with a M2=46.9 through the Physical Optics Propagation but I don’t know how to define the beam. I tried to use the top-hat beam, which is a good approximation for my purpose, but its divergence (in POP) does not match the divergence of a supergaussian beam. Thanks for your help.

Hey Giovanni,

If the beam has M^2~47, then it expands 47 times faster than a diffraction limited Gaussian. Why not just use rays?

  • Mark

POP does not take M2 directly as a parameter, and Mark's observation is relevant here. POP may not give you useful information in cases like that if it could. A rule of thumb is that POP works best when geometric rays do not, and when POP doesn't work well the aberrations usually dominate anyway. 


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