Diagnostic of high-energy Nd-YAG laser polarizer

Mohd Ikhwan Hadi Yaacob

Abstract

Polarized beam is very vital for operating light switches. High polarization purity is pertinent in high power Q-Switched Nd:YAG laser system. The aim of this project is to diagnose two high-energy polarizers which are commonly used in QSwitched Nd:YAG laser system namely Glenn-Laser calcite and thin film. The polarization purity was determined by using low power He-Ne laser in place of high power Nd:YAG. The power of He-Ne laser was set at 10 mW with wavelength of 632.8 nm. The beam was aligned to produce parallel plane polarizer. A polaroid polarizer was used as analyzer. The transmission power was measured using a power meter at variable angular rotations from 00 to 360o. The result obtained shows that, both polarizers have produced linear polarization. However, the thin film polarizer had produced a closer result more similar to He- Ne beam polarization. Hence, the thin film polarizer is a better choice to polarize high power Nd:YAG beam since it has higher polarization purity and transmission. Keywords: High power Nd:YAG laser, high energy polarizer, linear polarization.

References

Chuang, S.L. (1996). Physics of Optoelectronic Devices. New York: John Wiley & Sons,

Inc. 508-509.

Hecht and Zajac (1982). Optics. Addison-Wesley Publishing Company. Philipines. 219-

239.

Jenkins, F.A. and White, H.E. (1976). Fundamental of Optics. 4th edition. London:

McGraw-Hill Book Company. 503-509.

Klinger, D.S., Lewis, J.W. and Randall, C.E. (1990). Polarized Light in Optics and

Spectroscopy. London: Academic Press, Inc. 9-30.

Noriah Bidin (2002). Teknologi Laser. Penerbit UTM, Malaysia. 109-113.

Rahim Sahar (1996). Gelombang Bunyi dan Optik. Kuala Lumpur: Dewan Bahasa dan

Pustaka, Kementerian Pendidikan Malaysia.

Salvestrini, J.P., Abarkan, M. and Fontana, M D. (2004), Comparative study of Nonlinear

Optical Crystals for Electro-optic Q-Switching of Laser Resonator. Optical Materials.

Vol. 26 (4): 449-458.

Thian, L.E. (2004). Development of an Optical Pulsing by using Pockels Effect. University

Teknologi Malaysia. 60-76.

Yariv, A (1997), Optical Electronics in Modern Communications. 5th edition. New York:

Oxford University Press. 326-364.

Yariv, A and Yeh, P (1984). Optical Waves in Crystals. New York: A Wiley-Interscience

Publication. 220-316.