Effect of pumping light distribution on thermal distortion of laser crystal with circular cross-section

All solid-state lasers have many applications. The thermal effect of laser crystal is one of the main factors affecting the performance of laser. Usually, the temperature field distribution in crystal is found, and then the thermal distortion of laser crystal is calculated. This process is tediously long and includes some repetition. In order to simplify the solution finding process for analyzing the influence of pumping light distribution on thermal distortion, a simplified method was proposed to compute the thermal distortion of laser crystal with circular cross-section taking the pumping as super-Gaussian beam. It is found that because of thermal distortion, the pumped end of laser crystal becomes a rotational curved surface with power 3. As the rank of pumping super-Gaussian beam increases, the thermal distortion of crystal pumped-end decreases. The result is helpful for solid-state laser design.