Investigation of thermal effects in a diode end-pumped Tm,Ho-YLF solid state laser

Thermal effects have been investigated in the laser diode end-pumped Tm,Ho:YLF solid state laser. Under the condition that the pump light and the output laser are Gaussian distributions, the continuous wave rate equations of the Tm,Ho:YLF laser are given which take into energy transfer upconversion and ground state reabsorption effects. The fractional thermal loading and thermal focal length are obtained for different pump powers by solving the steady state rate equations. The thermal focal length as a function of pump power is measured by the knife edge method experimentally. Furthermore, the experimental results are compared with the theoretical results, and it is found that the theoretical results agree well with the experimental results.