We study the transmission of a monochromatic “image” through a paraxial cavity. Using the formalism of self-transform functions, we show that a transverse degenerate cavity transmits the self-transform part of the image, with respect to the field transformation over one round-trip of the cavity. This formalism gives insight into the understanding of the behavior of a transverse degenerate cavity, complementary to the transverse mode picture. An experiment of image transmission through a hemiconfocal cavity shows the interest of this approach.

• Received 25 February 2005

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevA.72.023804