Finite Element Analysis On Thermal Effect Of Solid-state Laser

High-Power solid-state lasers are of major interest for applications in military, materials processing and science research, because of some advantages, such as high power scaling, high peak power, compact devices and the wavelength in the IR delivery through an optical fiber which is one of the major advantages of solid lasers. However it is difficult to design a high power laser with good beam quality, because there are thermal effects in the active medium. Thermal effects in the active medium are investigated systematically in this dissertation to improve the working characteristics of lasers, increase output power and improve beam quality.Geometry of active medium such as rod, slab and disc are familiar in solid-state laser. The thermal effects in the active medium are the most important factor to be considered in the laser design. In the paper, the temperature distribution and stress distribution is discussed. The main work is done with the ANSYS, a kind of finite element analysis software.There are six parts in the paper. The 1st part is introduction. The 2nd part is the basic theory of thermal effects. The 3rd to 5th part is the analyses of three shape of active medium. The last part give some advises and some insufficiencies in the paper. The active medium and the pump are analyzed and the origin of the thermal effects is opened out.We make conclusion on the whole study and prospect the following research on this study. In this paper, a good thought to resolve thermal effects of solid-state laser is mentioned, and a new idea to design a high-power solid-state laser with good beam quality is given.