Thermal lensing of laser beams in optically transmitting materials

Abstract

Detailed numerical computations of thermal lensing in optically transmitting materials are carried out. The time evolution of the transmitted beam intensity, revealing defocusing and degradation effects, is displayed for a variety of materials, under a variety of geometrical configurations and operating conditions. While the degradation is monotonic with increasing time or incident power for materials with small induced birefringence, it may display an oscillatory character when birefringence effects are large. From the intensity degradation, criteria are formulated for rating optical performance of materials under transient and steady-state conditions. Ratings are obtained for a variety of transmitting materials at 10.6 μm. As a class, ionic materials are found to substantially outperform semiconductors and glasses at 10.6 μm.