Figure 44

Figure 44: These plots show the amplitude distribution and wave front (phase distribution) of Hermite–Gaussian modes unm (labeled as HGnm in the plot). All plots refer to a beam with λ = 1 µm, w = 1 mm and distance to waist z = 1 m. The mode index (in one direction) defines the number of zero crossings (along that axis) in the amplitude distribution. One can also see that the phase distribution is the same spherical distribution, regardless of the mode indices.