POLARIZATION CHARACTERISTICS OF A ND-YAG LASER SIDE-PUMPED BY DIODE-LASER BARS

A detailed experimental investigation of the polarization characterist ics of a diode laser side-pumped Nd:YAG laser has been performed. A Br ewster plate inserted into the cavity resulted in a decrease of 50% of the output power that is due to depolarization. A thin-film polarizer (TFP) was introduced into the cavity and the depolarization loss serv ed as the output coupling. By introduction of a quarter-wave plate (QW P) the output coupling rate and the beam shape were improved. An analy tical expression for the output coupling rate of a cavity containing a TFP and a QWP has been derived. The experimental results are in good agreement with the simplified theoretical analysis. (C) 1997 Optical S ociety of America.