“In our opinion, our proposed method is more beneficial compared to others, such as intracavity quarter-wave plate [23,24], intracavity Faraday rotator [25], classical depolarization compensation layout with two identically pumped and relay-imaged gain media [19], and different crystal cut directions [20–22].”

In our opinion, our proposed method is more beneficial compared to others, such as intracavity quarter-wave plate [23,24], intracavity Faraday rotator [25], classical depolarization compensation layout with two identically pumped and relay-imaged gain media [19], and different crystal cut directions [20–22].

The reasons are:

1. the substrate of SVWP is fused silica, providing low bulk absorption of laser radiation and featuring a significantly lower nonlinear refractive index, as compared to a Faraday rotator, thus minimizing thermal effects and nonlinear interaction in high-intensity lasers;
2. the SVWP element is compact (6 mm in thickness, usually 25.4 mm in diameter), whereas Faraday rotator material is usually at least 20 mm in length;
3. there is the possibility to compensate for depolarization in the highly pumped gain medium, which is not the case using a simple approach with a quarter-wave plate,
4. it is not overly sensitive to alignment and specific configuration;
5. it is very practical, as induced/compensated depolarization level can be tuned by either changing the incident laser beam size or stacking a few SVWPs in the same optical layout.