Extraction of a high-quality beams from narrow annular laser sources

We have analyzed the propagation properties of the field produced by circular arrays of cohere nt optical sources, obtaining the conditions for the generation of good-quality global beams. Such conditions can be obtained by the use of resonators based on the Talbot effect. This appears to be a practical method for the construction of simple, low-cost resonators for compact diffusion-cooled high-power lasers with annular format. Low-loss annular Talbot cavity configurations have also been studied. (C) 1999 Optical Society of America