Simulation of birefringence in laser crystals

Thermal lensing e ects and birefringence in laser crystals strongly in uence beam quality of high power solid state lasers. Particularly, the e ects of birefringence are important in laser ampli ers using Nd:YAG crystals. To study these e ects, a simulation tool was developed, which allows to calculate birefringence in laser crystals for di erent kind of crystal cuts and pumping con gurations. The photoelastic e ects were accurately calculated by FE method. Simulation results are presented for di erent crystals and pumping. We also show that birefringence is not radially symmetric for a 111-cut Nd:YAG crystal, even when the pumping con guration is radially symmetric.