Semianalytical analysis of thermal effect in LD double-side-pumped rectangular laser crystal

A semianalytical method to analyze the thermal effect in a LD double-side-pumped rectangular laser crystal is put forward. Through the analysis of working characteristics of the laser crystal, a thermal model that matches actual situations of the laser crystal is established. General expressions of temperature field and thermal distortion field in the laser crystal can be obtained by a novel method to solve the heat conduction equation of orthotropic material. This semianalytical method can be used to calculate the temperature field and thermal distortion field in other LD double-side-pumped laser crystals and is applied to Nd:YVO4 crystal in detail in this paper, and two methods of effectively reducing thermal distortion in the laser crystal are offered. Results show that a maximum temperature rise of 362.2 degrees C and a maximum thermal distortion of 5.55 mu m are obtained in Nd:YVO4 crystal when the output power of the two laser diodes are both 30 W. When the off-center distance is 0.6 mm, the maximum thermal distortion is reduced by 37.7%; when the thickness of the crystal is reduced from 2.0 mm to 1.4 mm, the maximum thermal distortion is reduced by 31.7%. Results in this paper can offer theoretical base for better solving thermal problems in laser system. (c) 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.