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 π- 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.