Analysis of the thermal effects in diode-pumped Tm:YAG ceramic slab lasers

Tm:YAG ceramics with a quasi-three-level system are sensitive to temperature. The optical and thermodynamic properties of Tm:YAG ceramics can change with changing temperature, and this affects the output power stability and beam quality of lasers. Thus temperature control is a key and difficult problem for Tm:YAG lasers, especially for high power laser output. In combination with slab structure and grad-doping techniques for composite ceramics, the temperature distributions of Tm:YAG ceramics are analyzed. It is found that the temperature difference of a rationally designed grad-doping Tm:YAG ceramic can be reduced significantly with the same absorption pump power, which results in higher output power and beam quality. (paper)