title: Structural and optical behavior due to thermal effects in end-pumped Yb:YAG disk lasers.
abstract: We employ a Monte Carlo ray-tracing code along with the ANSYS package to predict the optical and structural behavior in end-pumped CW Yb:YAG disk lasers. The presence of inhomogeneous temperature, stress, and strain distributions is responsible for many deleterious effects for laser action through disk fracture, strain-induced birefringence, and thermal lensing. The thermal lensing, in turn, results in the optical phase distortion in solid-state lasers. Furthermore, the dependence of optical phase distortion on variables such as the heat transfer coefficient, the cooling fluid temperature, and crystal thickness is discussed.
authors.affiliation: Iranian National Center of Laser Science and Technology (INCLST), Tehran 14665-567, Iran.
authors.forename: Vahid
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Sazegari
authors.forename: Mohammad Reza Jafari
authors.initials: MR
authors.lastname: Milani
authors.forename: Ahmad Khayat
authors.initials: AK
authors.lastname: Jafari