Thermal Birefringence-Based beam shaping in high energy lasers

Abstract

Repetition-rate high-energy laser systems with high beam quality have been attracting growing attentions in various applications. However, the degradation of beam quality caused by thermal effects is nearly unavoidable in high-energy laser amplifiers operating at high repetition rates. One primary thermal effect is thermal-induced birefringence, which typically induces polarization changes at various spatial positions within the beam. This study explores the potential of leveraging the thermal-induced birefringence effect to manipulate the polarization distribution of the beam and, consequently, control the spatial intensity distribution of the beam by using an additional polarizer. This method demonstrates promise for beam pre-compensation, mitigating thermal-induced depolarization, and other laser applications in high-energy lasers with high repetition rates.