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glossary

Laser: acronym of : « light amplification by stimulated emission of radiation » ; device emitting spatially and temporally coherent light radiation based on the stimulated emission
Waist: position along the propagation axis where a laser beam has the smallest size
Embedded gaussian beam: beam with a gaussian intensity distribution used to simulate a real beam from the gaussian fundamental mode ; characterized by the M-square coefficient representing the ratio between its divergence and that of the fundamental gaussian mode with the same waist size
Primary principal plane: plane of the object space of an optical system whose conjugation by the said optical system occurs with a magnification of +1 and whose conjugate plane is called the secondary principal plane
Wavelength ( of a light wave ): distance between two consecutive identical states of the electric ( or magnetic ) field
Effective focal length: algebraic distance from the primary/secondary principal plane of an optical system to its front/back focal plane
Image space: space conjugate of the object space by an optical system
Secondary principal plane: plane conjugate by an optical system of an object plane ( the primary principal plane ) with a transverse magnification of +1
M square factor (M2): ratio between the divergence of an embedded gaussian beam and that of the fundamental mode of a laser (gaussian mode) with the same waist size and at the same wavelength