Laser thermal distortion all-time metrology system for solid-state laser based on phase measuring deflectometry

We report a low-cost laser thermal distortion all-time metrology system (LATAMS) to overcome the intrinsic limitations of conventional approaches. The LATAMS is especially useful for the thermal distortion measurement of the laser crystal in solid-state lasers, compared with other approaches. A LATAMS setup is constructed and embedded into an existing solid-state laser, consisting of displaying the fringe patterns and recording the changes processes. The LATAMS could provide high-precision real-time thermal distortion measurement throughout the whole process of the solid-state laser. The experimental results successfully demonstrated its capability in measuring the wavefront distortion of laser crystal.