Thermal Lensing in Optical Systems

The advent of modern technologies in the area of material processing has seen an increase in the use of high-power laser sources in optical systems. The massive amount of heat generated by the high-energy sources leads to a deformation of the geometry and a modulation of the refractive index of the optical components in the system that will influence their properties. In VirtualLab Fusion these effects are handled by connecting surface operators with solvers for inhomogeneous media. We demonstrate these effects in various optical components common in material processing applications, like lenses and laser rods.

Investigation of Focus Shift due to Thermal Lensing

In this use case we demonstrate the change in the effective focal length caused by thermal lensing on a lens. The deformation of the geometry and the steady-state temperature distribution are calculated using Ansys Mechanical® and are then imported into VirtualLab Fusion.


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Gaussian Beam Focused by a Thermal Lens

This use case shows the variation of the focal length of the thermal lens, as well as of the focus beam diameter, when the input power changes [W. Koechner, Appl. Opt. 9, 2548–2553 (1970)]. This example is published in [H. Zhong, J. Opt. Soc. Am. A 35].