Determination of the thermal loading of diode-pumped Nd:YVO4 by use of thermally induced second-harmonic output depolarization

A new method of using thermally induced second-harmonic output depolarization to determine the fractional thermal loading of a diode-pumped Nd:YVO4 laser is proposed. The experimental results show that the fraction of the green output power polarized along the extraordinary axis of a KTP crystal, f(e), is an oscillatory function of the absorbed pump power. The fractional thermal loading can be determined by measurement of the difference in the absorbed pump power between the peaks of f(e). (C) 1998 Optical Society of America.