An ideal laser beam has greatest intensity in the center and tails off at the edges, following a Gaussian

profile (see Figure 2-4). This is known as the TEMmn or fundamental output mode, which in turn
determines how small beam waist can be focused. The TEM acronym stands for transverse
electromagnetic modes and subscripts m and n symbolises the number of nodes in horizontal and
vertical directions to the beam propagation, respectively. Ideally lower divergence and higher radiance
will produce good quality holes. The quality of a laser beam is specified using the M2 (M squared)
factor, and can be estimated as follows:

𝜋𝐷𝜃 (2-
𝑀2 =
4𝜆 6)

Where, θ is divergence angle (radians), λ is the wavelength, and D is the unfocused beam diameter
(mm). M2 is a beam propagation ratio that indicates how close a laser is to being single mode TEM00.
For the perfect Gaussian TEM00 condition has M2 = 1, particularly in YAG laser systems. M2 values
less than 1.1 are suitable for laser drilling since it provides good beam quality and small focal spot size.

(a) (b)
Examples of Gaussian mode plots: (a) representation of different types of Hermite-Gaussian modes1 in
3D and 2D, (b) beam profile of a JK 704 laser system (Naeem, 2008).

1
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