Investigation of the divergence of the radiation emitted from a laser with an inhomogeneous active medium under gain saturation conditions

A theoretical analysis is made of the kinetics of laser radiation divergence. The influence of optical inhomogeneities of the active medium on the directionality of the output radiation is studied for lasers with plane-parallel resonators. The results of a computer calculation are compared with estimates obtained using the geometric optics approximation. The calculations are carried out for a wide rang of wavelengths, pump intensities, and degrees of homogeneity of the active medium.