Thermal lens and laser oscillating in CaF2 and BaF2 ceramics

In struggle for record average and peak power of laser radiation it was found out that many characteristics before used materials don't answer increasing inquiries. There was a problem of searching new alternative materials. One of such materials can be a ceramic. For lasers with high average and peak power a polycrystalline ceramics offers well-known advantages: large aperture like in glass, high thermal conductivity like in single crystals, higher than in single crystal thermal shock parameter, possible control of spectroscopic characteristics and low cost. Recently, 67kW CW ceramics laser was reported. At such power the important role is played by the thermal effects which studying in ceramics becomes actual. In this paper, we present a theoretical model of thermal effects in laser ceramics and their experimental confirmation.