Analysis of nonlinear self-focusing phenomenon in high-power laser system based on ray-tracing

Abstract

In high power laser systems, nonlinear effect, one of the key factors of beam wavefront aberration and even irreversible damage to system, has always been one of the top considerations of researchers for decades. A hybrid ray-tracing method for both linear media and nonlinear media based on geometric optics is presented in this paper and realized by programming. In a simple optic system with KDP crystal, an obvious decline of beam quality is observed in high laser power density conditions and a method taking component intervals as compensation of beam quality is proved feasible. Considering the complexity of traditional modeling method based on surfaces, a modeling method based on components is established. Hopefully, the conclusions and flaws of this paper can shed light on relevant work and further research.