Depolarization loss compensated resonator for electro-optic Q-switched solid-state laser

A novel laser resonator for compensating depolarization loss that is due to thermally induced birefringence in active rod is reported. As this new structure being applied to an electro-optic Q-switched LIDA side-pumped Nd:YAG laser operating at a repetition rate of 1000 Hz, substantial reduction in depolarization loss has been observed, the output pulse energy is improved about 56% from that of a traditional resonator without compensation structure. With incident pump energy of 450 mJ per pulse, linearly polarized output energy of 30 mJ per pulse is achieved, the pulse duration is less than 15 ns, and the peak power of pulse is about 2 MW. The extinction ratio of laser beam is better than 10:1, and the beam divergence is 1.3 mrad with beam diameter of around 2.5 mm. (c) 2006 Published by Elsevier B.V.