We introduce a novel approach for the characterization of the quality of a laser beam that is not based on particular criteria for beam width definition. The Lorenz curve of a light beam is a sophisticated version of the socalled power-in-the-bucket curve, formed by the partial sums of discretized joint intensity distribution in the near and far fields, sorted in decreasing order. According to majorization theory, a higher Lorenz curve implies that all measures of spreading in phase space, and, in particular, all Renyi (and Shannon) entropy-based measures of the beam width products in near and far fields, are unanimously smaller, providing a strong assessment of a better beam quality. Two beams whose Lorenz curves intersect can be considered of relatively better or lower quality only according to specific criteria, which can be inferred from the plot of the respective Lorenz curves. (C) 2017 Optical Society of America
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