Thermal lens and its effects in copper-vapor lasers

We have analyzed and measured the thermal lens of the copper-vapor laser by considering both its windows and active medium. The equivalent combined focal length varies with operation parameters and it is sensitive to the laser geometry. The results are verified by our measurements on a 20 W device with 35 mm internal diameter tube. The thermal lens effects on the beam properties are analyzed and verified with the experiments for both oscillator and laser chain case.