Effects of thermally induced birefringence in high-output-power electro-optically Q-switched Nd:YAG lasers and their compensation

Abstract

We show that thermally induced birefringence in an electro-optical crystal can play an important role in Q-switched Nd:YAG lasers with a high average power output. A compensation of the thermal effects in both active-element and electro-optical crystals is achieved by employing two identical Pockels cells instead of one, with a π/2 polarization rotator between them in the so-called ring modulator. Experiments that are carried out show that undesirable thermopolarization effects are essentially eliminated by using this new optical configuration. A detailed description in terms of Jones matrices of the properties of the proposed resonator is also included.

© 1993 Optical Society of America

Effect of thermally induced birefringence on performance of KD*P electro-optics crystal with rectangular shape

Xingliang Yin, Menghua Jiang, Zhe Sun, Yongling Hui, Hong Lei, and Qiang Li
Appl. Opt. 56(10) 2893-2900 (2017)

Passively Q-switched diode-pumped continuous-wave Nd:YAG–Cr⁴⁺:YAG laser with high peak power and high pulse energy

Jie Song, Cheng Li, Nam Seong Kim, and Ken-ichi Ueda
Appl. Opt. 39(27) 4954-4958 (2000)

High power fundamental mode Nd:YAG laser with efficient birefringence compensation

Maik Frede, Ralf Wilhelm, Martina Brendel, Carsten Fallnich, Frank Seifert, Benno Willke, and Karsten Danzmann
Opt. Express 12(15) 3581-3589 (2004)

Passively Q-switched Nd:YAG ring lasers with high average output power in single-frequency operation

I. Freitag, A. Tünnermann, and H. Welling
Opt. Lett. 22(10) 706-708 (1997)

High-energy LDA side-pumped electro-optical Q-switched Nd:YAG ceramic laser

Yunfeng Qi, Xiaolei Zhu, Qihong Lou, Jianghua Ji, Jingxing Dong, and Runrong Wei
J. Opt. Soc. Am. B 24(5) 1042-1045 (2007)