A novel technique for compensation of birefringence in active elements of solid-state lasers

Summary form only given. Heating of active elements (AE) of solid-state lasers gives rise to a thermal lens and birefringence. The problem of how to compensate for the birefringence in AE has been studied for many years and continues to be a subject of investigation. Various designs were suggested for compensation, including a design with a second AE and a 90/spl deg/ rotator, Faraday mirror, and a design with a /spl lambda//4 plate. However, none are completely free of disadvantages. The last design is effective only for small birefringence. The presence of two AE is not always desirable. At high powers, the Faraday mirror itself introduces polarization distortions because of large absorption. In this presentation we propose a novel technique for compensation of depolarization in a rod-type AE.