Author(s)

Victor V. Apollonov

Prokhorov General Physics Institute of RAS, Vavilova Str. 38, Moscow, Russia.

The advent of the laser has placed stringent requirements on the fabrication, performance and quality of optical elements employed within systems for most practical applications. Their high power performance is generally governed by three distinct steps, firstly the absorption of incident optical radiation (governed primarily by various absorption mechanisms); secondly, followed by a temperature increase and response governed primarily by thermal properties and finally the elements thermo-optical and thermomechanical response, e.g., distortion, stress birefringenous fracture, etc. All of which needs to be understood in the design as efficient, compact, reliable and useful for many applications high power systems, under a variety of operating conditions, pulsed and continuous wave, rep-rated or burst mode of varying duty cycles.

Heat Transfer; Surface Deformation; Optical Polishing; Reflectivity; Intermetallic Coatings; Porous Structures; LD Structures; Silicon Carbide; Space-Based Telescopes

Apollonov, V. (2013) High power optics and its new manifestations. Natural Science, 5, 653-671. doi: 10.4236/ns.2013.55081.