Abstract
Applied stress has been reported previously as an effective means to obtain polarized emission in diode-laser-excited monolithic Nd:YAG lasers.1,2 In an effort to resolve some discrepancies concerning their polarization behavior, we conducted a systematic study of the polarization properties of these devices. Our findings indicate that the polarization of the pump radiation is a more important factor than previously realized in selecting the output polarization of the mini-YAG oscillator. This polarization effect is particularly important in the strain tuned monolithic oscillators,3 because it provides a means for independently partitioning the available energy between the two orthogonally polarized lasing modes of the birefringent oscillator. We also report the rather surprising result that the effect is strongly dependent on the wavelength of the pump radiation. This latter observation suggests the importance of spectral control of the diode-laser pump radiation in realizing well-behaved laser emission.
© 1988 Optical Society of America
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