Finite Element Simulation of Solid State Laser Resonators

The complex physical optics behavior in modern solid state lasers can only approximately be described using common simulation techniques, such as a Gaussian mode analysis or beam propagation methods. For this reason we present a new 3-dimensional, time-dependent method to model the laser beam in a resonator in a more comprehensive way. We transform the wave equation by a special ansatz and solve the resulting equation, which is similar to a Schroedinger equation, by a finite element analysis. In this paper we explain our new approach and present first numerical results for a simple laser cavity. The results are compared with those of a dynamic multimode analysis using Gaussian eigenmodes.