Thermooptical distortions in a Nd:YAG slab with a zigzag beam propagation

Efficient operation of diode-pumped solid-state lasers with both high average power and good beam quality is generally limited by thermal effects in the laser gain medium. The effects of these distortions can be mitigated by application different pumping and extraction architecture. We investigate experimentally the degree of absorbed pumping inhomogeneity which could influence the beam quality.