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When an optical ring cavity is designed, the beam radii at some special positions, especially at the beam waists are very interested in, since the gain mediums, nonlinear crystals and others important optical elements are generally located at the beam waist. In this paper, we firstly presented a simple method for designing optical ring cavities based on the self-consistency theory and the fact that q parameter is uniquely determined by the waist beam radius and its position. This approach is different from ABCD method and it no longer requires cumbersome calculation. The calculations of designing optical ring cavities are simplified because q parameter only has imaginary part at beam waist plane. Moreover, designing the resonant cavity through the calculation of beam waist radii and their position has great practical significance, because it is very easy to adjust the waist radii and the positions at the important optical elements. We employed this method to design an end-pumped six-mirror ring cavity continuous-wave passively mode locked laser. The experiment of a highly stabilized continuous-wave mode locked (CWML) laser was investigated and the results coincided with the theoretical studies very well. The investigation results show that the simple method can be used to design optical ring cavities conveniently, intuitively and efficiently.

A folded resonator requires an oblique angle of incidence on the folded curved mirror, which introduces astigmatic distortions that limit the performance of the lasers. We present a simple method to compensate the astigmatism of folded resonator without Brewster windows for the first time to the best of our knowledge. Based on the theory of the propagation and transformation of Gaussian beams, the method is both effective and reliable. Theoretical results show that the folded resonator can be compensated astigmatism completely when the following two conditions are fulfilled. Firstly, when the Gaussian beam with a determined size beam waist is obliquely incident on an off-axis concave mirror, two new Gaussian beam respectively in the tangential and sagittal planes are formed. Another off-axis concave mirror is located at another intersection point of the two new Gaussian beams. Secondly, adjusting the incident angle of the second concave mirror or its focal length can make the above two Gaussian beam coincide in the image plane of the second concave mirror, which compensates the astigmatic aberration completely. A side-pumped continues-wave (CW) passively mode locked Nd:YAG laser was taken as an example of the astigmatically compensated folded resonators. The experimental results show good agreement with the theoretical predictions. This method can be used effectively to design astigmatically compensated cavities resonator of high-performance lasers.