Birefringence compensation in a barium nitrate Raman laser

We are investigating pulsed barium nitrate (Ba(NO/sub 3/)/sub 2/) lasers and amplifiers for an ozone lidar system. Previously, we reported that the visible output of a Raman laser, pumped by a Q-switched, frequency-doubled Nd:YAG laser at 532 nm, is slightly depolarized. In this paper, we present quantitative depolarization measurements and demonstrate a simple technique to compensate for the crystal birefringence.