Thermally Induced Focal Shift in High-Power Laser Focusing Systems

Application ID: 19955


A modern high-power industrial fiber laser system can deliver up to 3kW of single-mode laser radiation on to surfaces to be cut, drilled, welded or marked. Even using highly transmissive materials, the optical component used to focus the laser beam onto target surfaces can be affected by the large amount of power carried by the light.

As the laser beam passes through the optical components, thermal expansion as well as variation of the refractive index of the optical materials can change the system's focus.

This model uses the Structural Mechanics Module as well as the Ray Optics Module to compute the effect of thermal lensing on a high-power fiber laser system.

Reference: O. Maerten et al., The Characterization of Focusing Systems for High-Power Lasers with High Beam Quality, Laser + Photonics, 2009

This model example illustrates applications of this type that would nominally be built using the following products: