Nonlinear thermally induced distortions of a laser beam in a cryogenic disk amplifier

Taking into account the temperature dependences of the heat conductivity, the refractive index, and the thermal expansion coefficient, we calculated the temperature, elastic stresses, a thermally induced lens and depolarisation of a beam in a cryogenic disk amplifier (an Yb:YAG disk placed between a copper cylinder and a sapphire disk cooled by liquid nitrogen). When the active element (the thickness is 0.6 mm, the orientation is [001], the atomic concentration of Yb is 10%) is pumped by radiation from a diode laser (the beam diameter is 6 mm), the temperature does not exceed 140 K for the heat release power of 100 W. In this case, elastic stresses in the active element are six times lower than the maximum permissible value. The focal distance of the thermally induced lens is 5.5 m and the depolarisation rate is 0.038% per two passes through the active element. Although the heat conductivity of the active element rapidly decreases with temperature, the thermal load can be increased by 1.5 — 2 times when the dimensions of the active element remain constant.