Thermal stress can induce birefringence in a laser medium, which can cause depolarization of the laser. The depolarization effect will be very severe in a high-average-power laser. Because the depolarization will make the frequency doubling efficiency decline, it should be compensated. In this paper, the thermal characteristics of two kinds of materials are analyzed in respect of temperature, thermal deformation and thermal stress. The depolarization result from thermal stress was simulated. Depolarization on non-uniform pumping was also simulated, and the compensation method is discussed.
