Polarization-controlled optical ring cavity (PORC) tunable pulse stretcher

A new concept and a theoretical approach for modeling a tunable polarization-controlled optical ring cavity pulse stretcher is demonstrated. The technique discussed herein permits highly simplified and flexible tuning of the temporal shape of nanosecond duration pulses. Using half-wave plates positioned extra- and intracavity, transmission to reflection ratios across both input faces of a polarization beam splitter can easily be controlled. The resulting models indicate a further reduction in peak intensity of 30%, with respect to conventional dielectric beam splitting optical ring cavities, when configured under equivalent and optimized cavity settings. (C) 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.