Double-resonance grating mirror for polarization control in solid-state lasers

• Published in: Laser physics letters Vol. 3; no. 4; pp. 178 - 180
• Main Authors: Ahmed, M. A., Graf, Th
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Berlin WILEY-VCH Verlag 01.04.2006; WILEY‐VCH Verlag
• Subjects: dual-duty-cycle grating; polarization; spectral bandwidth; thin disk laser
• ISSN: 1612-2011; 1612-202X
• DOI: 10.1002/lapl.200510088

The spectral width of the polarizing effect of a coupling grating on a standard quarter‐wave multilayer laser mirror can be increased by applying dual‐duty‐cycle gratings. As an example this is discussed considering the requirements to polarize a Yb:YAG thin‐disk laser. By applying dual‐duty‐cycle gratings the spectral tolerance can be widened by a factor of two as compared to single‐duty‐cycle designs and at the same time achieve a high reflectivity and low losses for the oscillating polarized laser mode. The calculations of the structures were carried out with the help of an exact modelling code based on the modal method. The code simulates the interaction of a plane electromagnetic wave with the corrugated multilayer structure to compute amplitude and power of all reflected and transmitted diffraction waves. (© 2006 by Astro, Ltd. Published exclusively by WILEY‐VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA)