3D ray tracing model for laser beams influenced by thermal lensing in solid-state gain media

Phillip Lino Rall; Ramon Springer; Christoph Pflaum

doi:10.1117/12.2311840

29 May 2018 3D ray tracing model for laser beams influenced by thermal lensing in solid-state gain media

Phillip Lino Rall, Ramon Springer, Christoph Pflaum

Proceedings Volume 10694, Computational Optics II; 106940S (2018) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2311840
Event: SPIE Optical Systems Design, 2018, Frankfurt, Germany

Abstract

A ray tracing model for thermal effects solid-state single-pass amplifiers is presented, which is able to simulate thermal lensing, depolarization and beam quality degradation. The ray tracing algorithm is based on alternatively evaluating the axial and radial gradient and thereby finding the trajectory in thermally influenced media. This enables to find the focal length distribution of the system. Additionally, to the position of the rays, its phase is also determined, which enables to reconstruct the wavefront of the beam after passing through the crystal. This wavefront is used for a Zernike polynomial analysis to determine spherical aberration, which is linked to the beam quality of the passing beam. Furthermode the total depolarization is obtained by finding the change of polarization for each ray separately. The simulation for thermal lensing is compared with a single-pass Nd:YVO4 system, the beam degradation is compared with a Nd:YVO₄-MOAP system. Both show good agreement with the simulation data, as long as the gain of the system is homogeneous.

Citation Download Citation

Phillip Lino Rall, Ramon Springer, and Christoph Pflaum "3D ray tracing model for laser beams influenced by thermal lensing in solid-state gain media", Proc. SPIE 10694, Computational Optics II, 106940S (29 May 2018); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2311840

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