Compact diode-pumped Nd:YVO/sub 4/ MOPA laser with intracavity beam steering

Summary form only. Fast and precise beam pointing and deflection is a need in most industrial laser applications such as material processing, range finding and tracking. Classical methods of angular beam scanning basically involve mechanical or acousto-optic devices which may have limited performances respectively due to their long response time because of inertia, or limited optical efficiency. To overcome these limitations we propose to reconsider the intracavity beam steering architectures based on the conjugate resonator arrangement. It consists of a multimode cavity including Fourier transform lenses and whose transverse spatial mode is controlled by a two dimensional spatial light modulator (SLM).