Thermal and stress analyses in an end-pumped Nd:YAG slab laser using finite element method

The increasing application on high laser power in industries required studies in the portion of pump radiation absorbed by laser media that exchanges to heat. Heat may cause thermal stress, stress birefringence and thermal lens effects. These effects can destroy the optical properties of the laser medium, decrease the beam quality and may lead to medium break. In this paper, the thermal and stress analyses of continuous and pulsed end-pumped Nd:YAG slab laser are studied using finite element method. Heat deposited in the slab is removed by cooling water, flowing on the largest faces of the slab, which surrounds the active media. The temperature and stress distributions of the end-pumped Nd:YAG slab are defined by coupled field methods in the ANSYS commercial finite element software. The value of maximum temperature and stress in the slab which is affected by an end-pumping are calculated. Finally the maximum pump-power range which can be applied to the slab is determined using the limit of maximum stress in the slab. The analyses are done in from transient to steady-state regimes for continuous pumping. Results show that deposited heat due to the pulsed pumping acts like a mechanical impact.