Master-oscillator-power-amplifier laser with adaptive aberration correction

Summary from only given. The master oscillator is a diode-pumped, almost diffraction limited Nd:YVO/sub 4/ laser. We used a birefringence-compensation scheme consisting of relay-imaging telescope with two lenses and a quartz-rotator to eliminate the stress-induced birefringence of the two Nd:YAG amplifiers. This birefringence and the resulting depolarization is the strongest aberration in Nd:YAG lasers.