Work

Integrated thermal management of high-power solid-state lasers: heat generation, cooling architectures, interfaces, and thermo-optic performance

Year: 2026

Type: article

Abstract: Thermal effects critically limit power scaling, beam-quality preservation, and operational stability in high-power solid-state lasers. As heat-flux densities rise, thermal management has moved beyond external cooling enhancement toward coordinated control of heat generation, heat load distribution, heat removal, interfacial transport, and thermo-optic response. Focusing on the semiconductor pump source and gain medium as two coupled heat-generating subsystems, this review provides a structured overview of mainstream thermal management strategies along the heat-flow path. It first summarizes heat generation mechanisms, heat-load characteristics, thermal resistance constraints, and thermo-mechanical-optical degradation pathways. It then discusses three major routes: material optimization for reducing or redistributing heat generation and improving internal heat spreading; advanced cooling architectures for enhancing heat removal and modifying thermal boundary conditions; and interface engineering for reducing cross-interface temperature drops and thermomechanical mismatch. This review emphasizes that thermal management should not be assessed only by temperature rise, thermal resistance, or heat transfer coefficient. Instead, thermal improvements should be interpreted in relation to thermo-optic and device-level metrics, including output power, efficiency, beam quality, wavefront distortion, operational stability, and reliability risks. Finally, future thermal management is discussed in terms of heat-source regulation, continuous thermal-path co-design, realistic laser-operation validation, and context-dependent performance comparisons across different laser architectures.

Source: Optics & Laser Technology

DOI: 10.1016/j.optlastec.2026.116460

Authors: Chenyu Shi, Wenbo Hu, Baojun Song

Institutions: Xi'an Jiaotong University, Air Force Engineering University

Language: English

Topic: Solid State Laser Technologies

Subfield: Electrical and Electronic Engineering

Field: Engineering

Domain: Physical Sciences

Open Access status: hybrid

Estimated APC paid: $3,230

Funders: National Natural Science Foundation of China, National Key Research and Development Program of China