Self-adaptive optical elements for compensation of thermal lensing effects in diode end-pumped solid state lasers

摘要

Abstract: Thermal lensing effects in diode pumped solid state lasers can cause severe deteriorations of beam quality and efficiency. In this paper, we suggest the exploitation of thermal lensing effects in other elements than the active laser medium itself, in order to compensate the thermal lens in the active medium. When using a tolerable fraction of the pump power, these devices should provide a self-adaptive means to correct for the thermal lens in diode end-pumped solid state lasers for all pump powers. A mirror device based on Nd-doped LG-760 has been studied in detail.!20