Abstract

Almost all lasers emit light with a well-defined polarization. The direction of this polarization is determined by dichroic and birefringent properties of the complete laser, i.e. of both the cavity and the active medium. In optically pumped lasers one has access to the dichroism and/or birefringence of the gain medium through, for instance, the polarization of the optical pump beam. The overall effect may be small, however, when the induced anisotropy decays very rapidly. The latter is the case in semiconductor lasers.

© 2000 IEEE