Abstract

Heating effects in the laser active media Under pump constitute a major limitation in the construction of highly efficient or high-power solid state lasers. These effects could induce the optical distortion of the resonator or even the physical destruction of the active component. In case of neodymium-doped crystals two major sources exists: the quantum defect between the Pump and laser radiation and the non-radative processes (multiphonon relaxation, down conversion cross-relaxation on intermediate levels, upconversion from the emitting level⁴F_3/2).

© 2001 Optical Society of America