Numerical Investigation of Thermal Effect in Plasma Electrode Pockels Cell for High Average Power

Abstract

The average power of a Pockels cell is limited by thermal effects arising from the optical absorption of the laser pulse. These thermal effects can be managed by configuring the switch as a plasma-electrode thin plate Pockels cell, which works under heat-capacity operation. Simulation results show that, based on KD*P (in thickness 0.5 cm) at an average power loading of 1 kW, the aperture integrated depolarization loss at 1.06 um is less than 10% in 5 min working time.