Abstract

We report maintenance of perfect radial-polarization purity in high-power, cw pump chambers using strengthened, polycrystalline Nd:YAG laser rods. Although the cubic symmetry of single-crystal rods caused threefold symmetric birefringence due to shear stresses at the ends of the pumped zone, polycrystalline rods macroscopically behaved as isotropic material and enabled polarization preservation. Elimination of this source of depolarization prevents the major source of bifocusing aberrations in a chain of amplifiers.

© 2010 Optical Society of America

2kW, M² < 10 radially polarized beams from aberration-compensated rod-based Nd:YAG lasers

Inon Moshe, Steven Jackel, Avi Meir, Yaakov Lumer, and Eyal Leibush
Opt. Lett. 32(1) 47-49 (2007)

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

Yaakov Lumer, Inon Moshe, Zvika Horovitz, Steven Jackel, Galina Machavariani, and Avi Meir
Appl. Opt. 47(21) 3886-3891 (2008)

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)

Fiber amplification of radially and azimuthally polarized laser light

Moti Fridman, Micha Nixon, Mark Dubinskii, Asher A. Friesem, and Nir Davidson
Opt. Lett. 35(9) 1332-1334 (2010)