Diffraction of Gaussian beams on intracavity Bragg gratings

The diffraction of Gaussian beams on intracavity Bragg gratings is analyzed theoretically. For reasonable waists the associated beam divergence does not significantly influence the diffraction efficiency of such devices. Nevertheless, the tilt angle of the incident beam, imposed by the Bragg resonance condition, strongly reduces the diffraction efficiency at short grating periods. However, the angular selectivity can be maintained if the Fabry–Perot cavity is tuned to the incident beam direction, which allows the use of small-volume holograms together with a dense angular multiplex. This theoretical analysis can be applied to the optimization of the diffraction properties of Gaussian beams on any intracavity Bragg grating, which could then be used for freespace parallel signal processing. © 2005 Optical Society of America OCIS codes: 090.1970, 090.7330, 190.4360.