Closed-loop controlled compensation of thermal lensing in high-power thin-disk lasers using spherically deformable mirrors

Abstract

Abstract We present the closed-loop controlled compensation of the thermally induced lens in a high-power thin-disk oscillator to obtain fundamental-mode operation over a wide range of pump powers. The radius of the oscillating beam was measured in real time at the position of the thin-disk crystal. This signal was used by the control system to adapt the curvature of a spherically deformable mirror to maintain a constant radius of the oscillating laser beam.