Thin-disk laser scaling limit due to thermal-lens induced misalignment instability

Abstract: We present an obstacle in power scaling of thin-disk lasers related with self-driven growth of misalignment due to thermal lens effects. This self-driven growth arises from the changes of the optical phase difference at the disk caused by the excursion of the laser eigen-mode from the optical axis. We found a criterion based on a simplified model of this phenomenon which can be applied to design laser resonators insensitive to this effect. Moreover, we propose several resonator architectures which are not affected by this effect.