Compensation for induced birefringence in active elements of pulse-periodic amplifiers

An investigation was made of compensation for thermally induced birefringence in active elements (neodymium glass, YAG) of pulse-periodic amplifiers. A polarization rotator mounted between the amplifier modules reduced the degree of depolarization of the probe radiation from 30% to 2%. The spatial distribution of the linearly polarized radiation intensity remained unchanged after passing through the amplifier–rotator–amplifier system.