Methods for compensation of thermal lensing based on Thermo Optical (TOP) analysis

The compensation of thermal lensing in laser optics for application in the high power domain is an up-to-date topic and discussed in literature multiple times. This paper combines distinct published approaches with own contributions to enhance current methodologies for the simulation, the measurement and the compensation of thermally induced optical effects. Particularly, a thermal time constant is introduced to characterize the time until steady state is reached. Moreover, a metrological setup is described for thermal lens measurement at high power. Finally, methods for thermal lens compensation and material data acquisition are discussed on the basis of an experimental example.