Abstract

The depolarization caused by thermally induced birefringence in YAG lasers is intrinsically reduced without any compensation by use of a (110)-cut crystal. The depolarization can be made smaller by more than one order than that in a (111)-cut crystal. This reduction is realized in both the side pumping of a uniformly doped disk/rod combined with an aperture or of a composite material in which the doped YAG is surrounded by the undoped YAG, and the end pumping with a focused beam.

© 2002 Optical Society of America