More on analyzing the reflection of a laser beam by a deformed highly reflective volume Bragg grating using iteration of the beam propagation method

Abstract

A further extension of the iteration method for beam propagation calculation is presented that can be applied for volume Bragg gratings (VBGs) with extremely large grating strength. A reformulation of the beam propagation formulation is presented for analyzing the reflection of a laser beam by a deformed VBG. These methods will be shown to be very accurate and efficient. A VBG with generic z-dependent distortion has been analyzed using these methods.

Using a volume Bragg grating instead of a Faraday isolator in lasers incorporating stimulated Brillouin scattering wavefront reversal or beam cleanup

“…Scattering losses are less than 1% and comparable to the residual reflectivity of the antireflection coated entrance and exit faces. The asymmetry in the side lobes of the measured curve could be due to a z-dependent background index change, or grating period distortion [9,10]. The polarization dependence of a volume holographic grating should be negligible when the angle between the incident and diffracted beams is <10° [11], and we have confirmed this experimentally.…”

Thermal limitations of volume Bragg gratings used in lasers for spectral control

“…Some numerical calculations on how VBGs are affected by absorption are available in the literature [18][19][20][21]. For a reflected laser beam Jelger et al [18] showed that the heat distribution loosely follows the intensity distribution in the grating for a highly reflective VBG with an absorption coefficient of 10 −3 cm −1 .…”

“…For a reflected laser beam Jelger et al [18] showed that the heat distribution loosely follows the intensity distribution in the grating for a highly reflective VBG with an absorption coefficient of 10 −3 cm −1 . Shu et al [19][20][21] have developed a numerical model for the grating reflectivity for a given grating deformation due to, for instance, absorbed radiation. In [19] an example is given corresponding to the case when a nonresonant beam is heating up the grating and another similar beam is reflected.…”

Numerical modeling and determination of limiting powers for volume Bragg gratings used in lasers for spectral control

“…A few examples on numerical calculations on how VBGs are affected by absorption have been reported [7,[11][12][13]. For a reflected laser beam, Jelger et al [7] showed that the heat distribution loosely follows the intensity distribution in the grating for a highly reflective VBG with an absorption coefficient of around 10 −3 cm −1 , i.e., when the absorbed power is relatively low and does not affect the intensity distribution within the grating.…”

“…For a reflected laser beam, Jelger et al [7] showed that the heat distribution loosely follows the intensity distribution in the grating for a highly reflective VBG with an absorption coefficient of around 10 −3 cm −1 , i.e., when the absorbed power is relatively low and does not affect the intensity distribution within the grating. Shu and co-workers [11][12][13] have developed a numerical model for the grating reflectivity for a given grating deformation due to, e.g., absorbed radiation. In [11], an example is given corresponding to the case when a nonresonant beam is heating up the grating and another similar beam is being reflected.…”