Appearance of periodic inhomogeneities of the refractive index during the initial stage of degradation of lasers made from platelet semiconductor single crystals of II-VI compounds

An experimental investigation was made of platelet CdS single crystals before and after excitation of lasing. It was demonstrated for the first time that residual optical inhomogeneities, distributed periodically and representing the initial stage of degradation of crystals, were induced by laser radiation.