Expand this Topic clickable element to expand a topic
Skip to content
Optica Publishing Group

Thermally induced birefringence in nonsymmetrically pumped laser rods and its implications for attainment of good beam quality in high-power, radially polarized lasers

Not Accessible

Your library or personal account may give you access

Abstract

The ability to generate and then amplify radially polarized light opens up the possibility of achieving very high-power, near diffraction-limited beams from rod-based solid-state lasers. Residual bifocusing rapidly degrades beam quality. Residual bifocusing results from nonradially symmetric pump distributions. We analyze how a nonradially symmetric pump distribution induces a nonradially symmetric stress map. This manifests itself as nonradially symmetric birefringence, and as depolarization to radially/azimuthally polarized beams (or as deterioration in birefringence compensated linearly polarized lasers). Here we analytically describe the birefringence terms of a nonradially symmetric strain map. The model results are supported by radial-depolarization measurements in our 2kW Nd:YAG pump chambers. For the current level of depolarization, beam quality degradation per rod is ΔM2=4 because of bifocusing alone. The degradation per rod can be reduced substantially by improving pump uniformity.

© 2008 Optical Society of America

Full Article  |  PDF Article
More Like This
Depolarization induced by pump edge effects in high average power laser rods

Yaakov Lumer, Inon Moshe, Steven Jackel, Zvi Horvitz, Avi Meir, Revital Feldman, and Yehoshua Shimony
J. Opt. Soc. Am. B 27(1) 38-44 (2010)

Correction of spherical and azimuthal aberrations in radially polarized beams from strongly pumped laser rods

Inon Moshe, Steven Jackel, and Avi Meir
Appl. Opt. 44(36) 7823-7827 (2005)

Effects of thermally induced aberrations on radially and azimuthally polarized beams

Yaakov Lumer, Inon Moshe, Avi Meir, Yotam Paiken, Galina Machavariani, and Steven Jackel
J. Opt. Soc. Am. B 24(9) 2279-2286 (2007)

Cited By

You do not have subscription access to this journal. Cited by links are available to subscribers only. You may subscribe either as an Optica member, or as an authorized user of your institution.

Contact your librarian or system administrator
or
Login to access Optica Member Subscription

Figures (6)

You do not have subscription access to this journal. Figure files are available to subscribers only. You may subscribe either as an Optica member, or as an authorized user of your institution.

Contact your librarian or system administrator
or
Login to access Optica Member Subscription

Tables (1)

You do not have subscription access to this journal. Article tables are available to subscribers only. You may subscribe either as an Optica member, or as an authorized user of your institution.

Contact your librarian or system administrator
or
Login to access Optica Member Subscription

Equations (14)

You do not have subscription access to this journal. Equations are available to subscribers only. You may subscribe either as an Optica member, or as an authorized user of your institution.

Contact your librarian or system administrator
or
Login to access Optica Member Subscription

Select as filters


Select Topics Cancel
© Copyright 2024 | Optica Publishing Group. All Rights Reserved