Thermal lens study in diode pumped N-g- and N-p-cut Nd:KGd(WO4)(2) laser crystals

Loiko, P. A. and Yumashev, K. V. and Kuleshov, N. V. and Savitski, Vasili and Calvez, S. and Burns, D. and Pavlyuk, A. A. (2009) Thermal lens study in diode pumped N-g- and N-p-cut Nd:KGd(WO4)(2) laser crystals. Optics Express, 17 (26). pp. 23536-23543. ISSN 1094-4087

Abstract

A comparative study of thermal lensing effect in diode laser pumped N-g- and N-p-cut Nd:KGd(WO4)(2) (KGW) laser crystals was performed for laser emission polarized along the principle refractive axis, N-m. The thermal lens in the N-g-cut Nd: KGW was found to be weakly astigmatic with a positive refractive power for both the N-m- and N-p-directions. For N-p -cut Nd: KGW, strong astigmatism was observed and the refractive powers in the N-g- and N-m-directions had opposing signs. The degree of astigmatism was found to be considerably weaker for the N-g-cut Nd: KGW in comparison with the N-p-cut one: 0.35 dptr/(W/cm(2)) and 2.85 dptr/(W/cm(2)), respectively. The ratio of the thermal lens refractive powers in the planes parallel and perpendicular to the laser emission polarisation were measured as + 1.4 and -0.425 for N-g- and N-p-cut Nd: KGW respectively. (C) 2009 Optical Society of America

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