DECOUPLED INTRACAVITY LASER ALIGNMENT

摘要

There is disclosed a method of performing alignment adjustments for bringing a laser into a desired alignment which, in turn, affects light output intensity of the laser. The laser defines an alignable light path (L) within a resonant cavity (30) and includes a birefringent nonlinear material (42) having an input face (44). The method includes the steps of arranging the nonlinear material (42) in the light path in a way which causes the light path to pass through the input face (44) of the nonlinear material (42) such that the alignment adjustments affect a plurality of paramenters which parameters are normally interdependently coupled to one another with respect to each alignment adjustment. One of the parameters being the phase retardance of the birefringent nonlinear material (42) and one of the adjustments is the tilt of the birefringent nonlinear material with respect to the light path. The tilt adjustment is substantially decoupled from the phase retardance parameter by fabricating the birefringent nonlinear material so that a partucular parameter of the birefringent material is substantially optimized for any angle within an optimized range of angles surrounding a specific angle measured from a line normal to the input face of the birefringent nonlinear material and, thereafter, setting the orientation of the birefringent nonlinear material such that the line normal to the input face resides in a particular range of angles which is centered on the specific angle. The tilt angle is adjusted within the particular range of angles so as to adjust parameters other than the phase retardance in a way which at least partially brings the laser into the desired alignment. The phase retardance is then adjusted using an adjustment other than the tilt adjustment to bring the laser into the desired alignment.