Abstract

It is known that the birefringence effects in lamp pumped laser rods can be studied in a polariscopic arrangement.¹ Unfortunately, this method is insensitive to small birefringences such as those induced by laser-diode (LD) pumping. In a polarized laser, although small birefringence leads to small energy losses, such losses are still remarkable when realizing a high output efficiency. These losses are more important especially in the case of glass laser materials because of their poor thermal conductivity. To measure the two-dimensional (2D) small birefringence induced by thermal- and mechanicalstress in LD pumped solid-state lasers, a novel polarimeter² is proposed. This polarimeter was used to measure the 2D thermal stress-induced birefringence in LD pumped Nd:glass (HAP4) and Nd: YAG laser rods.

© 1995 IEEE