title: Use of polycrystalline Nd:YAG rods to achieve pure radially or azimuthally polarized beams from high-average-power lasers.
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.
authors.affiliation: Applied-Physics Division, Soreq NRC, Yavne 81800, Israel. inon@soreq.gov.il
authors.forename: Inon
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Moshe
authors.forename: Steven
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Jackel
authors.forename: Yaakov
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Lumer
authors.forename: Avi
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Meir
authors.forename: Revital
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Feldman
authors.forename: Yehoshua
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Shimony