Abstract: | The article is devoted to an analysis of the nonlinear processes that arise when powerful beams propagate in the optical medium of an Nd laser and influence its output parameters. A review is presented of the methods of theoretically describing the processes of temporal and spatial self-focusing, and experimental data are cited that illustrate the character of the course of the self-focusing in the generators and amplifiers of a high-power laser. Possible methods of suppressing self-focusing in a laser installation are considered.Translated from Trudy Ordena Lenina Fizicheskogo Instituta im. P. N. Lebedeva, Vol. 103, pp. 84–117, 1978. |