Resonator with doubled stability range based on birefringence compensation for high power TEM/sub 00/ single rod lasers

Summary form only given. Thermal loading in solid-state lasers causes in the laser material via the photoelastic effect thermal birefringence. For fundamental mode (TEM/sub 00/) operation and many purposes linear polarized radiation is required. Due to thermal birefringence the linear polarization is converted into an elliptically polarized beam inside the cavity. Compensation of this depolarization is achieved if equal phase retardation for radially and tangentially polarized beam components are obtained at each point of the cross-section of the laser rod. Various methods have been realized up to now by rotating the polarization. For exchange of tangential and radial polarization components of the laser light between the first and second pass through a single diode pump Nd:YAG rod we employed a Faraday rotator in a double-passage scheme.