Numerical model for thermal parameters in optical materials

Abstract

Thermal parameters of optical materials, such as thermal conductivity, thermal expansion, temperature coefficient of refractive index play a decisive role for the thermal design inside laser cavities. Therefore, numerical value of them with temperature dependence is quite important in order to develop the high intense laser oscillator in which optical materials generate excessive heat across mode volumes both of lasing output and optical pumping. We already proposed a novel model of thermal conductivity in various optical materials. Thermal conductivity is a product of isovolumic specific heat and thermal diffusivity, and independent modeling of these two figures should be required from the viewpoint of a clarification of physical meaning. Our numerical model for thermal conductivity requires one material parameter for specific heat and two parameters for thermal diffusivity in the calculation of each optical material. In this work we report thermal conductivities of various optical materials as Y3Al5O12 (YAG), YVO4 (YVO), GdVO4 (GVO), stoichiometric and congruent LiTaO3, synthetic quartz, YAG ceramics and Y2O3 ceramics. The dependence on Nd3+-doping in laser gain media in YAG, YVO and GVO is also studied. This dependence can be described by only additional three parameters. Temperature dependence of thermal expansion and temperature coefficient of refractive index for YAG, YVO, and GVO: these are also included in this work for convenience. We think our numerical model is quite useful for not only thermal analysis in laser cavities or optical waveguides but also the evaluation of physical properties in various transparent materials. © (2016) COPYRIGHT Society of Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineers (SPIE). Downloading of the abstract is permitted for personal use only.