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.