Adaptive compensation of lower order thermal aberrations in concave-convex power oscillators under variable pump conditions

A Nd:Cr:GSGG concave-convex power oscillator was developed that utilized both an adaptive mirror comprised of spherical and cylindrical optical elements together with a Faraday rotator to dynamically eliminate lower order aberrations (thermal focusing, astigmatism, and bipolar focusing). An adaptively controlled collimating lens corrected for shifts in the mode-waist position. The addition of a polarizer and a reentrant mirror totally eliminated thermal birefringence losses. The techniques developed are attractive in any solid state laser that must work under changing pump power conditions.