Dp 597 en
Laser beam propagation control in thermally-loaded media
Author: David Vojna
This work deals with numerical simulations of a laser beam propagation through a thermally loaded solid-state 2D medium. At first a brief introduction to basic principles of laser physics is given followed by a simplified description of thermo-optic effects associated with laser system operation. Finite element methodology is presented as a practical tool for thermo-mechanical analysis of two dimensional models of system optical elements. A procedure is developed to integrate the FEM analysis results and computational mesh in a numerical algorithm simulating the laser beam propagation. Laser beam is approximated as a set of rays within this work. The algorithm performance is validated for both homogeneous and graded-index media using comparison method of numerical and analytical solutions. An example of thermo-optical analysis of a zigzag laser amplifier is also included.
- Vojna David, mailto:david.vojna@gmail.com
