Abstract

Nowadays, a crystal Cr⁴⁺:YAG is widely exploited as a saturable absorber (SA) for Q-switched solid-state lasers. It has turned out that the direction of polarization of the generated giant pulse (GP) depends on the angular orientation of the Cr⁴⁺:YAG SA inside the cavity [1]. Such pulses can be used as a pump for Type-II second-harmonic generation (SHG) when one may need a harmonic-pulse shortening and / or a possibility to transform its shape. These features caused by a time variation of the direction of the GP polarization have been theoretically predicted [2]. The aim of the present study is to give an experimental verification of the model [2].

© 2001 EPS