Experimental confirmation of the transversal symmetry breaking in laser profiles

Abstract: The Snell phase effects on the propagation of optical beams through dielectric blocks have been matter of recent theoretical studies. The effects of this phase on the laser profiles have been tested in our experiment. The data show an excellent agreement with the theoretical predictions confirming the axial spreading modification and the transversal symmetry breaking. The possibility to set, by rotating the dielectric blocks, different configurations allows to recover the transversal symmetry. Based on this experimental evidence, dielectric blocks can be used as alternative optical tools to control the beam profile.