Abstract

As lasers are pushed for more output power, the laser medium becomes stressed resulting in aberrations in the wavefronts and polarization of the output laser beam. Simple stimulated Brillouin scattering (SBS) phase conjugators typically do not correct for polarization distortions. Polarization restoration has been accomplished by phase locking the two polarizations together in an SBS cell.^1-4 We have designed and tested a new method of polarization restoration, which is easy to implement and can passively alter the phase or polarization of the return beam for output coupling.

© 1996 Optical Society of America