Analysis of the thermal effect in diode end-pumped Er:YAG lasers by using Finite Element Method

A new method for combining Finite Element Method (FEM) thermal analysis and thermo-mechanical coupling method for calculating the thermal lensing values in diode end-pumped Er:YAG lasers is proposed. A finite-element model is used to simulate the thermal effects in different Er:YAG crystals with pumping scenarios. The influences of pump powers, crystal absorption coefficients and crystal sizes on the Er:YAG thermal effects are discussed, and the relationship between the thermal effects and thermal lensing effects is analysed. A thermo-mechanical coupling model is also constituted for finite-element analysis based on the above results, and the focal length of the Er:YAG crystal with different pump powers are obtained by using this thermo-mechanical coupling model. The predicted thermal lensing values are compared with experimental results, which agree well with the simulated results.