Modeling the thermomechanical processes in the output window of a high-power СО2 laser

Abstract

A mathematical model of thermomechanical processes in the output window of a high-power continuous gas laser is developed and used to examine the windows of a СО2 laser. The dependence of the maximum allowed output radiation power on the beam diameter and the distributions of temperatures and mechanical stresses are obtained, and the divergence of radiation is studied for windows made from ZnSe, KCl, and polycrystalline diamond (PD). In addition, the damage threshold of a composite output window made from PD with a single-crystalline region at the center is considered.