Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Time-resolved measurement of thermally induced aberrations in a cryogenically cooled Yb:YAG slab with a wavefront sensor

  • Published:
Applied Physics B Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

The time-resolved measurements of thermally induced wavefront aberrations in a cryogenically cooled Yb:YAG crystal are presented in dependence on temperature in the range between 250 and 130 K under non-lasing condition. A wavefront sensor was utilized to determine the wavefront aberrations. The wavefront distortions were experimentally studied for a cryogenically cooled Yb:YAG crystal in detail for the first time. The wavefront aberrations were significantly reduced at cryogenic temperatures including defocus which was the dominant aberration and which was responsible for the so-called thermal lensing effect. We found that defocus aberration is caused not only by thermally induced effects (responsible for thermal lens), but also by electronically induced change in the refractive index due to excitation of ion activators which is responsible for the electronic lensing. Nevertheless, at pumping intensity of 6.3 kW/cm2 and repetition rate of 100 Hz thermal effects were the dominant one. In addition, an improvement in the Strehl ratio along with an increase in absorbed pump energy was observed while the temperature of the gain medium was decreased. The measurements clearly show the advantages of cryogenic cooling of laser-active media for beam quality improvement.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1
Fig. 2
Fig. 3
Fig. 4
Fig. 5
Fig. 6
Fig. 7
Fig. 8
Fig. 9

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  1. A. Endo, Laser Pulses—Theory, Technology, and Applications, Chap. 12 (InTech, Rijeka, 2012)

    Google Scholar 

  2. W. Koechner, Solid-State Laser Engineering, 6th edn. (Springer, New York, 2006)

    MATH  Google Scholar 

  3. T.Y. Fan, IEEE J. Quantum Electron. 29, 1457 (1993)

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  4. O. Novak et al., Appl. Sci. 5, 637 (2015). doi:10.3390/app5040637

    Article  Google Scholar 

  5. M. Divoky et al., High Power Laser Sci. Eng. 2, e14 (2014)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  6. D.C. Brown, J.M. Singley, K. Kowalewski, J. Guelzow, V. Vitali, Opt. Express 18, 24770 (2010)

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  7. R.L. Aggrawal, D.J. Ripin, J.R. Ochoa, T.Y. Fan, J. Appl. Phys. 98, 103514 (2005)

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  8. M. Chyla, S.S. Nagisetty, P. Severova, T. Miura, K. Mann, A. Endo, T. Mocek, Proc. SPIE 9343, 93431E (2015). doi:10.1117/12.2079326

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  9. J. Körner, V. Jambunathan, J. Hein, R. Seifert, M. Loeser, M. Siebold, U. Schramm, P. Sikocinski, A. Lucianetti, T. Mocek, M.C. Kaluza, Appl. Phys. B 116, 75 (2014)

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  10. O. Adriani, S. Albergo, D. Alesini, et al. Technical Design Report EuroGammaS proposal for the ELI-NP Gamma beam System (2014). arXiv:1407.3669v1 [physics.acc-ph]

  11. F. Reichert, M. Hemmer, A. Calendron, H. Cankaya, K. Zapata, M. Smrž, L. Zapata, F. Kärtner, in 2015 European Conference on Lasers and Electro-Optics—European Quantum Electronics Conference (OSA, 2015), p. CA_10_2

  12. M. Hemmer, F. Reichert, K. Zapata, M. Smrz, A. Calendron, H. Cankaya, K. Hong, F. Kaernter, L. Zapata, in CLEO: 2015 (OSA, 2015), p. STu4O.3

  13. B.A. Reagan, C. Baumgarten, K. Wernsing, H. Bravo, M. Woolston, A. Curtis, F.J. Furch, B. Luther, D. Patel, C. Menoni, J.J. Rocca, in CLEO: 2014 (OSA, 2014), p. SM1F.4

  14. C.L. Chang, P. Krogen, K.H. Hong, L.E. Zapata, J. Moses, A.L. Calendron, H. Liang, C.J. Lai, G.J. Stein, P.D. Keathley, G. Laurent, F.X. Kärtner, Opt. Express 23, 10132 (2015)

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  15. American National Standards Institute (ANSI), American National Standard for Ophthalmics–Methods for reporting optical aberrations of the eye (ANSI Z80.28–2004) (American National Standards Institute, Washington, DC, 2004)

  16. E. Anashkina, O. Antipov, J. Opt. Soc. Am. B 20, 363 (2010)

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  17. O.L. Antipov, D.V. Bredikhin, O.N. Eremeykin, A.P. Savikin, Opt. Lett. 31, 763 (2006)

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  18. M. Smrz, T. Miura, M. Chyla, S. Nagisetty, O. Novak, A. Endo, T. Mocek, Opt. Lett. 39, 4919 (2014)

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  19. D. Malacara, Optical Shop Testing, Chap. 13, 3rd edn. (Wiley, New Jersey, 2007)

    Book  Google Scholar 

  20. T.M. Jeong, D.K. Ko, J. Lee, Opt. Lett. 30, 3009 (2005)

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgments

The authors are thankful to Dr. O. Slezak, Dr. M. Divoky from the HiLASE Center (Dolni Brezany, Czech Republic) and Dr S. Bonora from CNR—Institute of Photonics and Nanotechnology (Padova, Italy)—for several fruitful discussions. This work is co-financed by the European Regional Development Fund, the European Social Fund and the state budget of the Czech Republic (project HiLASE: CZ.1.05/2.1.00/01.0027, project DPSSLasers: CZ.1.07/2.3.00/20.0143, project Postdok: CZ.1.07/2.3.00/30.0057) and the Ministry of Education, Youth, and Sport of the Czech Republic (project HiLASE: Superlasers for real world: LO1602). This work is also supported by the Czech Science Foundation (GACR) under project GA14-01660S.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. HiLASE Centre, Institute of Physics AS CR, Za Radnicí 828, 252 41, Dolní Břežany, Czech Republic

    P. Sikocinski, O. Novak, M. Smrz, J. Pilar, V. Jambunathan, A. Endo, A. Lucianetti & T. Mocek

  2. Czech Technical University in Prague, Břehová 7, 11519, Prague 1, Czech Republic

    P. Sikocinski, J. Pilar & H. Jelínková

Authors
  1. P. Sikocinski
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. O. Novak
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. M. Smrz
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. J. Pilar
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  5. V. Jambunathan
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  6. H. Jelínková
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  7. A. Endo
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  8. A. Lucianetti
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  9. T. Mocek
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to P. Sikocinski.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Sikocinski, P., Novak, O., Smrz, M. et al. Time-resolved measurement of thermally induced aberrations in a cryogenically cooled Yb:YAG slab with a wavefront sensor. Appl. Phys. B 122, 73 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00340-016-6342-y

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00340-016-6342-y

Keywords

Search

Navigation