Power scaling of end-pumped Nd:YLF lasers, modeling and experiments

Numerical modeling simulations are carried out to analyze and study the thermal effects in Nd:YLF laser crystals. The distributions of temperature and stress in the Nd:YLF laser rods are calculated with finite element (FE) simulations for different rod geometries and pump powers. The FE simulations that were carried out showed that using thinner Nd:YLF rod would lead to scale the power by 50% before the limits imposed by the thermally induced stress is reached. Also, we have investigated the generation of strong negative thermally induced lens for polarizations. The calculations of thermally induced lens in Nd:YLF laser rod is validated experimentally. Shack-Hartmann wavefront sensor was used for direct measurements of thermal lenses at different pump power. The obtained measurements were coinciding with the (FE) simulations. (C) 2017 Elsevier GmbH. All rights reserved.