Novel treatment of transverse gain saturation for CW and KLM end-pumped lasers

Summary form only given. We have developed simple, intuitive semi-analytical ABCD technique. that allows transverse gain saturation effects in end-pumped lasers to be accounted for with minimal approximation. The new formalism makes use of an explicit solution to the homogeneous gain-saturation equation and, for most cases, is virtually indistinguishable from a full beam propagation code (BPC). Our new ABCD method correctly treats saturation of the beam in the wings, overcoming the limitations of the quadratic approximation to the gain. The work has been extended to include pump and laser beam divergence in the gain medium. The predictions of the model are compared with experimental results from a diode-pumped Cr:LiSAF laser.