An optical method to measure the pulsed laser output power intensity distribution in the focal region

The intensity distribution of the solid state laser output power at the focal spot is important to predict the true temperature distribution across the heated area. This is due to the fact that a solid state laser temporal pulse comprises a random number of discrete spikes originating from an undetermined number of sites whose location within the lasing rod is not fixed. The present study investigates experimentally the temporal and spatial distribution of laser pulse power in the focusing region. An optical method was employed for the power intensity measurements. The applicability of the experiment was discussed. It is shown that the laser output power varies pulse to pulse and this variation is within ±10% of the mean value for a series of pulses. The temporal profiles for local power intensity suggest that some movement of the beam occurs during the pulse.