Theoretical investigation of negative influence of the cubic nonlinearity and induced birefringence on developing and using contemporary PW lasers systems

Abstract

A system of differential equations describing, neglecting diffraction, the propagation of laser radiation in a medium with birefringence and cubic nonlinearity is derived. It is shown that the efficiency of depolarization compensation by means of a 90° polarization rotator or a Faraday mirror decreases with increasing В-integral (nonlinear phase incursion). Comparison of the considered method effectiveness in the case of incident linear and circular polarization showed that for the circular polarization the optimal angle of polarization rotator is different from 90° and the degree of polarization is less than for the linear one.