Theoretical Study of Thermal Profile in a Finite Laser Slab

Abstract

In recent years lots of theoretical and experimental investigations have been devoted to slab lasers [1]–[5]. At high pumping level thermal effects in slab lasers are observed in the experiments[3][4], in which edge and end effects, asymmetrical temperature distribution in the zig-zag optical path are main reasons causing thermal distortions. Obviously, the one-dimensional model used as yet in describing thermal profile in slab lasers can hardly give a satisfactory explanation to those effects. In this paper, a three-dimensional model for a finite laser slab is presented. Closed-form temperature distributions are derived in general case by which it is convenient to analyse the dependence of pump parameters, laser materials on slab temperature profile. Computerized calculations are also carried out to explain our theoretical results.