Self-adaptive optical elements fur compensation of thermal lensing effects in diode end-pumped solid state lasers - Proposal and preliminary experiments

Thermal lensing effects in diode pumped solid state laser media are well known. In general they are disturbing. Only recently they have been exploited successfully as a mechanism for inducing cavity stability in microchip lasers. In this paper, we suggest the exploitation of thermal lensing effects in other elements than the active laser medium itself in order to compensate the thermal lens in the active medium. When using a tolerable fraction of the pump power these devices should provide a self-adaptive and self-aligning compensation means to correct for the thermal lens in diode end-pumped solid state lasers for all pump powers. In a preliminary proof of principle study, a mirror device based on Nd-doped LG-760 has been studied experimentally confirming the estimations. (C) 1997 Elsevier Science B.V.