Residual thermal stress of a mounted KDP crystal after cooling and its effects on second harmonic generation of a high-average-power laser

Abstract Thermal problems are huge challenges for solid state lasers that are interested in high output power, cooling of the nonlinear optics is insufficient to completely solve the problem of thermally induced stress, as residual thermal stress remains after cooling, which is first proposed, to the best of our knowledge. In this paper a comprehensive model incorporating principles of thermodynamics, mechanics and optics is proposed, and it is used to study the residual thermal stress of a mounted KDP crystal after cooling process from mechanical perspective, along with the effects of the residual thermal stress on the second harmonic generation (SHG) efficiency of a high-average-power laser. Effects of the structural parameters of the mounting configuration of the KDP crystal on the residual thermal stress are characterized, as well as the SHG efficiency. The numerical results demonstrate the feasibility of solving the problems of residual thermal stress from the perspective on structural design of mounting configuration.