Apodizing apertures for visible and IR lasers

We propose a new type of stable apodizing iris for lasers with peak intensities above 700 MW/cm² in Q-switched operation (10–20 ns) and 10 W/cm² in cw operation. Such irises can be used for suppressing the diffraction inhomogeneities in light beams, which cause self-focusing and destruction of laser elements. Because of their particular absorptive characteristics, these irises can be used over a wide spectral interval (0.6–3.5 μm).