Full-field unsymmetrical beam shaping for decreasing and homogenizing the thermal deformation of optical element in a beam control system

Abstract

We propose and demonstrate the full-field unsymmetrical beam shaping for decreasing and homogenizing the thermal deformation of optical element in a beam control system. The transformation of square dark hollow beam with unsymmetrical and inhomogeneous intensity distribution into square dark hollow beam with homogeneous intensity distribution is chosen to prove the validity of the technique. Dual deformable mirrors (DMs) based on the stochastic parallel gradient descent (SPGD) controller are used to redistribute the intensity of input beam and generate homogeneous square dark hollow beam with near-diffraction-limited performance. The SPGD algorithm adaptively optimizes the coefficients of Lukosz-Zernike polynomials to form the phase distributions for dual DMs. Based on the finite element method, the thermal deformations of CaF(2) half transparent and half reflecting mirror irradiated by high power laser beam before and after beam shaping are numerically simulated and compared. The thermal deformations of the mirror irradiated by the laser beam with different powers and the influences of thermal deformation on beam quality are also numerically studied. Results show that full-field beam shaping can greatly decrease and homogenize the thermal deformation of the mirror in the beam control system. The strehl ratios of the high power laser beams passing through the beam control system can be greatly improved by the full-field beam shaping. The technique presented in this paper can provide effective guidance for optimum design of high power laser cavity and beam shaping system.