Versatile Absorption Modeling for Transmissive Optical Elements Using Ray Tracing and Finite Element Analysis

Emerging quality requirements in modern optical systems increase the need for accurate simulation and compensation of disturbances. One key disturbance in high-power laser applications results from thermal loading due to absorption. This paper presents a flexible modeling approach for absorption based on ray tracing, where point heat sources are defined along ray paths. In addition, several methods for mapping these point heat sources along the ray path to the finite element mesh are introduced and compared. A major advantage of the proposed approach lies in its flexibility, as it enables the simulation of transient phenomena such as dynamic beam positioning and time-dependent variations in beam shape.