Effect of thermally induced birefringence on high power picosecond azimuthal polarization Nd:YAG laser system

Pulse-burst 1064-nm picosecond azimuthal polarization beam amplification up to an average power of 16.32 W using side-pumped Nd: YAG amplifiers has been demonstrated. The maximum envelop energy as much as 16.32 mJ, corresponding to a power amplification factor of 299.5%. A simple criterion was defined to help estimate the amount of depolarization in Nd:YAG amplifier stages. The degree of depolarization of the beam was 7.1% and the beam quality was measured to be M² = 3.69. The reason for the azimuthal polarization depolarization and beam quality degradation were explained theoretically and experimentally during the amplification process.