Conical refraction mode of an optical resonator

Abstract

The fundamental mode of a conical refraction resonator, i.e., an optical cavity where light experiences conical refraction (CR) from a biaxial crystal, is experimentally demonstrated in the plano-concave cavity configuration. We have discovered that the fundamental CR mode is characterized by the polarization and intensity structures of CR beams between the plane mirror and CR crystal, and it resembles the fundamental Gaussian mode with homogeneous polarization between the crystal and concave mirror. We theoretically explained this fundamental CR mode using the dual cone model and symmetry of the CR phenomenon and confirmed this explanation by numerical simulations.