Thermoelectric cooling of a pulsed mode 1064 nm diode pumped Nd: Yag laser

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Tezin Türü: Yüksek Lisans

Tezin Yürütüldüğü Kurum: Orta Doğu Teknik Üniversitesi, Mühendislik Fakültesi, Makina Mühendisliği Bölümü, Türkiye

Tezin Onay Tarihi: 2010

Öğrenci: YÜKSEL YÜKSEL

Danışman: HANİFE TUBA OKUTUCU ÖZYURT

Özet:

Since most of the energy input is converted to thermal energy in laser applications, the proper thermal management of laser systems is an important issue. Maintaining the laser diode and crystal temperature distributions in a narrow range during the operation is the most crucial requirement for the cooling of a laser system. In the present study, thermoelectric cooling (TEC) of a 1064 nm wavelength diode pumped laser source is investigated both experimentally and numerically. During the heat removal process, the thermal resistance through and between the materials, the proper integration of the TEC assembly, and the heat sink efficiency become important. For the aim of evaluating and further improving the system performance, various assembly configurations, highly conductive components, efficient interface materials and heat sink alternatives are considered. Several experiments are conducted during the system development stage, and parallel numerical simulations are performed both for comparison and also for providing valuable input for the system design. Results of the experiments and the simulations agree well with each other. As the laser device works in the transient regime, the experiments and the simulations are also implemented in this regime. In the final part of the study, the experiments are performed under the actual device working conditions. It is proved that with the designed TEC module and the copper heat sink system, the laser device can operate longer than the required operational time successfully.