Title

Modeling A Diode Pumped Nd: Yag Rod Laser

Keywords

Beam propagation method (BPM); Computer laser modelling; Optical distortions; Resonators; Solid lasers (solid-state lasers); Spatial laser modes

Abstract

We evaluate the performance potential of a diode pumped Nd: YAG rod laser by finding the absorbed pump distribution using ASAP, pump induced thermal lensing, gain medium surface distortion and stresses using FEMLAB and depolarization losses using MATLAB. Beam propagation in the optically distorted Nd:YAG rod and the free space part of the cavity, and the output laser beam were determined with a computational scheme we developed which employs the beam propagation method combined with sparse matrix technology. We propose a special cavity design that can select the spatial eigen mode shape of the laser and simultaneously compensate for pump induced thermal lensing, gain medium surface distortion and birefringence. The converged solutions calculated this special cavity design give both high extraction efficiency and good output beam quality. Sensitivity of the output beam to mirror tilt, thermal induced mirror distortion, and errors in the cavity length or the optical distortions in the rod were also calculated. The computational model was developed with sponsorship from DARPA Contract No. HR 00110410002 and AFOSR Contract No. FA9550051005.

Publication Date

5-8-2006

Publication Title

Proceedings of SPIE - The International Society for Optical Engineering

Volume

6100

Number of Pages

-

Document Type

Article; Proceedings Paper

Personal Identifier

scopus

DOI Link

https://doi.org/10.1117/12.641423

Socpus ID

33646176596 (Scopus)

Source API URL

https://api.elsevier.com/content/abstract/scopus_id/33646176596

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