Compensation of birefringence in active elements with a novel Faraday mirror operating at high average power

A decrease in the depolarization ratio by more than one order of magnitude by use of a recently proposed Faraday mirror (FM) in comparison with the traditional FM has been demonstrated experimentally. At a high average laser power, the possibility of an increase in the accuracy of compensation of depolarization in the active element by means of a lambda/4 plate with both the traditional and the novel FM is shown.