Study on propagation features of a Gaussian probe beam in a multiple lens-like rod system

In this paper, the propagation characteristics of a perfect Gaussian probe beam are studied for a diode-pumped solid-state laser (DPSSL) system. By using the algorithm based on the complex self-consistency analyses, the beam parameters can be evaluated if the radius of curvature and the spot size of the wavefront at the incident surface of the laser media are known beforehand. The birefringence in a tandem-set rod configuration is also investigated for a Gaussian Ne-He beam and the tendency of depolarization variations is in agreement with the previous prediction in principle. It has also been found that the deviations between the experimental data and the theoretical results are not merely resulting from the plane-wave approximation in the previous studies. Further researches are needed to give a reasonable explanation.