title: Effects of thermally induced birefringence in high-output-power electro-optically Q-switched Nd:YAG lasers and their compensation.
abstract: We show that thermally induced birefringence in an electro-optical crystal can play an important role in Q-switched Nd:YAG lasers with a high average power output. A compensation of the thermal effects in both active-element and electro-optical crystals is achieved by employing two identical Pockels cells instead of one, with a pi/2 polarization rotator between them in the so-called ring modulator. Experiments that are carried out show that undesirable thermopolarization effects are essentially eliminated by using this new optical configuration. A detailed description in terms of Jones matrices of the properties of the proposed resonator is also included.
authors.forename: S Z
authors.initials: SZ
authors.lastname: Kurtev
authors.forename: O E
authors.initials: OE
authors.lastname: Denchev
authors.forename: S D
authors.initials: SD
authors.lastname: Savov