激光的出现对大多数实际应用系统中的光学元件的性能、质量及其加工提出了严格的要求。激光的高功率性能由3个不同的过程决定：其一是对入射光辐射的吸收(主要由各种吸收机制决定); 其二是由热学性能决定的温度升高和响应; 其三是元件的热光学和热机械响应, 如变形、应力断裂等。在设计效率高、紧凑性好、可靠性好的应用于不同领域的高功率激光系统时, 需要考虑不同运行条件下的脉冲、连续波、不同占空比的重复频率或突发模式等。

The advent of the laser has placed stringent requirements for the fabrication, performance and quality of optical elements employed in 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, 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 of efficient, compact, reliable and useful for high power systems with many applications, under a variety of operating conditions such as pulsed, continuous wave, rep-rated or burst mode of varying duty cycles.