Resonator design for solid-state lasers

Abstract

Designing and testing solid-state laser resonators has been made as simple as possible for both educational and industrial purposes. Software applications used in such analysis are very important and reduces the computational analysis timeline effectively. This study investigates a significant resonator design model, of a simple two-mirror solid-state resonator. The solid-state laser resonator design simulation is carried out using the ABCD matrix application software – the Rezonator. This software helps to provide modifications for various optical elements used in the study. There are five tests that can be carried out in this study: Proving the effectiveness of the Rezonator software by comparing it to other resources, Using Rezonator to match the laser mode radius in the gain material to a known pump mode radius, Calculating the component positioning accuracy required for a particular cavity, Implementing a thermal lens in Rezonator and Implementing an ABCD matrix model for laboratory Nd:YAP laser in Rezonator. The imperative analysis shows that the variation of the optical elements helps in averting commonly known limitations of the laser resonator designs. The two most known issues in designating these are the thermal lensing (aberrations caused by extreme high-power pumping and variations in the laser resonators) and the laser beam diffraction problems exhibited due to changes in resonator mode radius. This study has also provided testing capacities that involve multiple variations of the optical elements in a laser resonator. Analytically, the experimentation models carried out are very deterministic e and error-margin inclusive.