Research and control of thermal effect in a helium gas-cooled multislab Nd:glass laser amplifier

Abstract

As the development of the laser-driven technology, the next generation of laser-driven device sets higher requirement for the repetition frequency. The higher repetition gives rise to thermal deposition, which induces thermo-optical effect, elasto-optical effect and bulk displacement. The thermal efficient management is an important approach to dissolve the thermal deposition. The quasi uniform distribution of heat medium is realized by helium cooling Nd:glass slab and the control of edge temperature. In the case, wavefront distortion and depolarization losses is obtained in experiment. Results said that both of them are improved greatly. At the same time, the distribution of temperature, stress and strain and stress birefringence in Nd:glass are analyzed by using finite element numerical simulation method. And the calculation results show that the wavefront distortion and depolarization losses match with the experimental results very well.