Microchip-laser polarization control by destructive-interference resonant-grating mirror

Florent Pigeon (1) , Jean-Claude Pommier (1) , Stéphanie Reynaud (1) , Olivier Parriaux (1) , Marwan Abdou Ahmed (1) , Svetlen Tonchev (2) , Nicolas Landru (3) , Jean-Philippe Fève (3)

1 LHC - Laboratoire Hubert Curien
2 ISSP - ISSP
3 TEEM PHOTONICS - Teem photonics

An output coupler comprising a resonant grating submirror monolithically associated with a standard multilayer submirror polarizes the emission of a Nd:YAG microchip laser linearly over its full emission bandwidth by intra-mirror destructive interference for the undesired polarization. A polarization extinction ratio of more than 25 dB is obtained up to 6.1µJ pulse energy. This passively Q-switched laser performance is almost identical to that of a gratingless non-polarized microchip laser. The design and fabrication of the resonant grating mirror are described.

Mots clés: Gratings; Lasers; Q-switched; Microstructure fabrication; Polarization-sensitive devices; Guided waves

Domaines: Optique [physics.optics]

Florent Pigeon, Jean-Claude Pommier, Stéphanie Reynaud, Olivier Parriaux, Marwan Abdou Ahmed, et al.. Microchip-laser polarization control by destructive-interference resonant-grating mirror. Optics Express, 2007, 15, pp.2573-2584. ⟨hal-00134970⟩