Thermal lens in diode-pumped square-section rods of Nd-doped phosphate glass and 05%Nd:5%Lu:CaF 2 crystal: simulations and experiments

C. Bernerd (1) , B. da Costa Fernandes (1) , E. Boursier (1) , J. Luce (1) , C. Maunier (1) , A. Braud (2, 3) , C. Meroni (3) , P. Camy (3) , S. Montant (1)

1 CESTA - Centre d'études scientifiques et techniques d'Aquitaine
2 OML - Optique, Matériaux et Laser
3 CIMAP - UMR 6252 - Centre de recherche sur les Ions, les MAtériaux et la Photonique

We performed simulations and experiments of wavefront distortions induced by propagating through diode-pumped square-section amplifying laser rods of Nd-doped phosphate glass and 0.5%Nd:5%Lu:CaF2. We observed that depending on the material, wavefront distortions’ profile can vary from a circular lens-like distortion to a complex astigmatic distortion. We showed that this difference comes from the relative sign of piezo-optic tensor coefficients.

Domaines: Optique [physics.optics]; Science des matériaux [cond-mat.mtrl-sci]

C. Bernerd, B. da Costa Fernandes, E. Boursier, J. Luce, C. Maunier, et al.. Thermal lens in diode-pumped square-section rods of Nd-doped phosphate glass and 05%Nd:5%Lu:CaF 2 crystal: simulations and experiments. Applied optics, 2020, 59 (31), pp.9905. ⟨10.1364/AO.408648⟩. ⟨hal-03140562⟩