Laser induced wavefront distortion in thick-disk material: An analytical description

Abstract Laser induced wavefront distortion is critical for designing and evaluation of optical components for high-power laser and can affect performance and stability of optical systems. The analysis of this effect involves a complex thermoelastic problem only solved in simplified conditions such as the plane-stress or plane-strain configurations. For more realistic descriptions, numerical solutions are required, although recent advances allowed for a unified model to describe the optical path change, regardless of the sample thickness, assuming a sample of infinite radius. In this work, we extend this result for the case of a thick-disk sample by solving the set of differential equations governing the thermoelastic response for the finite radius configuration. These results could represent a significant contribution for designing and characterization of laser systems with potential application in many photothermal methods for material characterization.