Solid-state laser resonators with diffractive optic thermalaberration correction

摘要

A solid-state laser cavity is studied where the laser crystalnaberrations are corrected by a diffractive optic element. The type ofnaberration and the location of the correction plate are found tonsignificantly influence the modal performance of the cavity. The largestnmodal discrimination is obtained for axicon-like crystal aberrations andnwhen the correction is performed close to the end mirror. An experimentnis performed with a laser diode-pumped Nd:YVO4 laser. With noncorrection, a thermal aberration of approximately two waves is measurednacross the crystal. By using a diffractive corrector plate, thensingle-mode slope efficiency is increased by a factor of 4, and thentotal single-mode output power is increased by a factor of 3