Pulse temporal scaling of LIDT for anti-reflective coatings deposited on lithium triborate crystals.

Anti-reflective (AR) coatings minimize photon losses of optics when it comes to the transmission of light, thus, are broadly used for imaging and laser applications. However, the maximum output power in high-power lasers is limited by the so-called laser-induced damage threshold (LIDT) parameter of optical elements. Often AR coated nonlinear crystals are responsible for such limitations, however, LIDT data is rather scarce.

Predicting lifetime of optical components with Bayesian inference.

Virtually all optical materials degrade over time when they are used in high average power or intensity optical systems. Extrapolation of optical components lifetime is crucial in such applications in order to avoid downtime or project failure. Measurements of the laser-induced damage threshold (LIDT) fatigue are usually done using the so-called S-on-1 test described in the ISO 21254-2 standard.

Quantitative investigation of laser-induced damage fatigue in HfO and ZrO single layer coatings.

The decrease of laser-induced damage threshold (LIDT) of optical materials when irradiated with multiple laser pulses is an important phenomenon commonly known as the optical fatigue effect. In case of pulsed femtosecond irradiation fatigue is usually attributed to incubation of laser-induced lattice defects. In this study, standard S-on-1 LIDT test was complimented with in situ time-resolved digital holographic microscopy (TRDHM) to quantitatively investigate fatigue of catastrophic damage for HfO and ZrO single layer ion-beam-sputtered optical coatings.

Contrasted fatigue behavior of laser-induced damage mechanisms in single layer ZrO optical coating.

The decrease of laser-induced damage threshold (LIDT) when exposed with high number of laser pulses is a well-known phenomenon in dielectrics. In the femtosecond regime this fatigue is usually attributed to the incubation of laser-induced lattice defects. In this work, a computational model is used to combine the data from time-resolved digital holographic microscopy measurements together with results of S-on-1 laser-induced damage threshold test in order to investigate fatigue of ZrO single layer coating.

Enhancement of laser-induced damage threshold in chirped mirrors by electric field reallocation.

In this paper, the relation between the laser-induced damage threshold (LIDT) and the electric field intensity (EFI) distribution inside a CM is investigated experimentally. We show that it is possible to increase the LIDT values by slightly modifying the electric field of a standing wave distribution without loss of spectral and dispersion performance. Suggested CM design improvement could increase reliability and LIDT performance of both CM elements and high-power systems they are used in.

Next generation highly resistant mirrors featuring all-silica layers.

A principal possibility to overcome fundamental (intrinsic) limit of pure optical materials laser light resistance is investigated by designing artificial materials with desired optical properties. We explore the suitability of high band-gap ultra-low refractive index material (n less than 1.38 at 550 nm) in the context of highly reflective coatings with enhanced optical resistance.

Parametric analysis of damage probability: a tool to identify weak layers within multilayer coatings.

The role of defects, inherent to fused silica substrate due to polishing and deposition processes, is interpreted in terms of laser-induced damage probability. Changes of damage threshold behavior are observed in bare substrate, monolayer, and multilayer coatings after irradiation with UV (355 nm) nanosecond laser pulses at different angles of incidence (0° and 45°) and polarizations (s and p). Statistical damage probability models are constructed for experimental data approximation.

Revision of laser-induced damage threshold evaluation from damage probability data.

In this study, the applicability of commonly used Damage Frequency Method (DFM) is addressed in the context of Laser-Induced Damage Threshold (LIDT) testing with pulsed lasers. A simplified computer model representing the statistical interaction between laser irradiation and randomly distributed damage precursors is applied for Monte Carlo experiments. The reproducibility of LIDT predicted from DFM is examined under both idealized and realistic laser irradiation conditions by performing numerical 1-on-1 tests.