LASER OSCILLATOR AND LASER AMPLIFIER

摘要

A laser oscillator includes: a optical resonator having an orthogonal mirror and a partial reflection mirror; a laser gas acting as a laser medium; and a 90-degree folding mirror acting as a polarization selecting element. The orthogonal mirror has two reflecting surfaces orthogonal to each other. The 90-degree folding mirror is arranged such that the polarization direction of the laser oscillated light is parallel to the reference axis set in a plane perpendicular to an optical axis of the optical resonator. The orthogonal mirror is arranged such that the polarization direction of the laser oscillated light is parallel to the valley line of the orthogonal mirror. This configuration can compensate anisotropy of optical characteristics in a laser medium, and stably generate linearly polarized laser light having excellent isotropy in a simple manner.