The influence of the wavelength on the morphology of nanosecond laser-induced damage on the exit surface of fused silica is investigated. A combination between the typical features of damage sites initiated at 1064 nm and 355 nm is observed at 532 nm, including ring patterns sporadically exhibited, in good agreement with calculations of the development of an electron avalanche at this wavelength. The associated ring appearance speed scales as the cube root of the laser intensity, and is ~10.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFLaser damage mitigation' is a process developed to prevent the growth of nanosecond laser-initiated damage sites under successive irradiation. It consists of re-fusing the damage area with a CO2 laser. In this paper we investigate the stress field created around mitigated sites which could have an influence on the efficiency of the process.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFSignificant improvement in the polishing process of fused silica optical components has increased their lifetimes at 351 nm. Nevertheless, for large laser facilities like the LaserMegaJoule (LMJ), zero defect optical components are not yet available. Therefore, a damage mitigation technique has been developed to prevent the growth of the laser-initiated damage sites.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFA major issue in the use of high-power lasers, such as the Laser Megajoule (LMJ), is laser-induced damage of optical components. One potential damage initiator is particulate contamination, but its effect is hard to distinguish from that of other damage precursors. To do so, we introduced artificial contaminants typical of metallic pollution likely to be present on the optical components of the LMJ chains.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAn integrated setup allowing high resolution photothermal microscopy and laser damage measurements at the same wavelength has been implemented. The microscope is based on photothermal deflection of a transmitted probe beam : the probe beam (633 nm wavelength) and the CW pump beam (1.06 microm wavelength) are collinear and focused through the same objective.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFLaser damage phenomena in fused silica are currently under study because of numerous related high power laser applications. Nanosized defects are believed to be responsible for some laser damage initiation. In order to predict and to quantify this initiation process, engineered submicronic gold defects were embedded in silica.
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