Sroor, HNaidoo, DarrylMiller, SWNelson, JCourtial, JForbes, A2019-02-072019-02-072019-01Sroor, H. et al. 2019. Fractal light from lasers. Physical Review A, vol. 99(1): DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevA.99.0138482469-99262469-9934DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevA.99.013848https://journals.aps.org/pra/abstract/10.1103/PhysRevA.99.013848http://hdl.handle.net/10204/10690Article published in Physical Review A: DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevA.99.013848Fractals, complex shapes with structure at multiple scales, have long been observed in Nature: as symmetric fractals in plants and sea shells, and as statistical fractals in clouds, mountains and coastlines. With their highly polished spherical mirrors, laser resonators are almost the precise opposite of Nature, and so it came as a surprise when, in 1998, transverse intensity cross-sections of the eigenmodes of unstable canonical resonators were predicted to be fractals [Karman et al., Nature 402, 138 (1999)]. Experimental verification has so far remained elusive. Here we observe a variety of fractal shapes in transverse intensity cross-sections through the lowest-loss eigenmodes of unstable canonical laser resonators, thereby demonstrating the controlled generation of fractal light inside a laser cavity. We also advance the existing theory of fractal laser modes, first by predicting 3D self-similar fractal structure around the centre of the magnified self-conjugate plane, second by showing, quantitatively, that intensity cross-sections are most self-similar in the magnified self-conjugate plane. Our work offers a significant advance in the understanding of a fundamental symmetry of Nature as found in lasers.en3D fractalsFractal lightLaserTransverse fractalsArticleSroor, H., Naidoo, D., Miller, S., Nelson, J., Courtial, J., & Forbes, A. (2019). Fractal light from lasers. http://hdl.handle.net/10204/10690Sroor, H, Darryl Naidoo, SW Miller, J Nelson, J Courtial, and A Forbes "Fractal light from lasers." (2019) http://hdl.handle.net/10204/10690Sroor H, Naidoo D, Miller S, Nelson J, Courtial J, Forbes A. Fractal light from lasers. 2019; http://hdl.handle.net/10204/10690.TY - Article AU - Sroor, H AU - Naidoo, Darryl AU - Miller, SW AU - Nelson, J AU - Courtial, J AU - Forbes, A AB - Fractals, complex shapes with structure at multiple scales, have long been observed in Nature: as symmetric fractals in plants and sea shells, and as statistical fractals in clouds, mountains and coastlines. With their highly polished spherical mirrors, laser resonators are almost the precise opposite of Nature, and so it came as a surprise when, in 1998, transverse intensity cross-sections of the eigenmodes of unstable canonical resonators were predicted to be fractals [Karman et al., Nature 402, 138 (1999)]. Experimental verification has so far remained elusive. Here we observe a variety of fractal shapes in transverse intensity cross-sections through the lowest-loss eigenmodes of unstable canonical laser resonators, thereby demonstrating the controlled generation of fractal light inside a laser cavity. We also advance the existing theory of fractal laser modes, first by predicting 3D self-similar fractal structure around the centre of the magnified self-conjugate plane, second by showing, quantitatively, that intensity cross-sections are most self-similar in the magnified self-conjugate plane. Our work offers a significant advance in the understanding of a fundamental symmetry of Nature as found in lasers. DA - 2019-01 DB - ResearchSpace DP - CSIR KW - 3D fractals KW - Fractal light KW - Laser KW - Transverse fractals LK - https://researchspace.csir.co.za PY - 2019 SM - 2469-9926 SM - 2469-9934 T1 - Fractal light from lasers TI - Fractal light from lasers UR - http://hdl.handle.net/10204/10690 ER -