Thermal lensing and spherical aberration in high-power transversally pumped laser rods

A precise knowledge of the thermal effects in laser crystals is very important for high-power laser design, but some relevant parameters are most often neglected in their calculation. In this paper, with the example of transversally pumped, high-power Nd:YAG lasers, we show the importance of the the...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Optics communications 2006-03, Vol.259 (1), p.223-235
Main Authors: Montmerle Bonnefois, A., Gilbert, M., Thro, P.-Y., Weulersse, J.-M.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Doped-insulator lasers and other solid state lasers
Exact sciences and technology
Fundamental areas of phenomenology (including applications)
Laser materials
Lasers
Optical materials
Optics
Physics
Solid-state lasers
Spherical aberration
Thermal effects
Thermal lensing
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Summary:A precise knowledge of the thermal effects in laser crystals is very important for high-power laser design, but some relevant parameters are most often neglected in their calculation. In this paper, with the example of transversally pumped, high-power Nd:YAG lasers, we show the importance of the thermal dependence of the gain medium’s physical properties such as the thermal conductivity, the dn/dT and the expansion coefficient on the thermal aberration and thermal lensing values; we also prove that the choice of the resonator can influence the amount of spherical aberration. Finally, analytically calculated values are confronted to experimental values, and show a very good agreement.
ISSN:0030-4018
1873-0310
DOI:10.1016/j.optcom.2005.08.041