This work is dedicated to the study of fatigue effects upon femtosecond laser-induced damage of Ta2O5/HfO2/SiO2 highreflective coatings irradiated by pulse train at 1Hz (65 fs, 800 nm). Upon on comparative measurements of different pulse numbers involving between 10 and 300 pulses, laser-induced damage threshold (LIDT) decreases and the multipulse LIDT decreased to the level of 70~75% of the single pulse LIDT. In addition, we found that the probability of damage performs an increasing trend with the number of pulse increases when the coating is irradiated with the same fluence. The evolution of LIDT and 100% damage probability threshold under multipulse irradiations revealed that fatigue effects were affected by both laser fluence and shot numbers. The deep defects play an important role in the multi-shot mode. A correlative theory model based on critical conduction band electron density is constructed to elucidate the experimental phenomena.
Since negative photoresist SU-8 has become a common material for multi-photon micro-lithology, it is necessary to study laser conditions adopted in lithology process. Optical transmittance of SU-8 was tested. According to Urbach optical-absorption theory and Gaussian laser lateral spatial intensity envelope, relationship between theory and actual polymerization size of SU-8 was shown. Experimentally, we investigated multi-photon polymerization threshold and laser-induced damage of SU-8 under femtosecond laser irradiation with the pulse width of 45 fs at 800 nm by 1-on-1 tests. The polymerization and damage threshold at 45 fs are 2.7 and 8.9 TW/cm2, respectively. Polymerization and damage morphologies are shown with high contrast and polymerization sizes are measured under SEM. Theoretical polymerization sizes versus laser fluence are calculated by laser-induce multi-photon polymerization size analysis (LMPSA), including Urbach optical-absorption theory and Gaussian laser lateral spatial intensity distribution. The calculated results show that diffusion exists in the femtosecond laser-induced polymerization.
A kind of HfO2/SiO2 355nm and 1064nm high-reflective (HR) coatings were deposited by electron beam evaporation. Laser-induced damage of the coatings were tested by 355nm-7ns pulses, 355nm-1ns pulses and 1064nm-30ps pulses in 1-on-1 mode. All tests were carried out with S-polarized and P-polarized pulses in two angles of incidences (AOIs) of 30° and 50°. Damage morphologies and cross-sectional profiles were characterized using scanning electron microscope (SEM) and focused ion beam (FIB), respectively. It is shown that the typical morphologies in all the tests were μm-sized pits. In the 1064nm-30ps tests, the damage pits appeared mostly as 3-4μm ripple-like pits with a density of 13000-25000 mm-2, accompanied by a few tiny pits around. The ripple-like pits were all conical pits with a cylindrical cavity at the bottom, the depth of which was around 1μm. The tiny pits were all cylindrical shaped with a depth of about 400nm. In the 355nm-7ns tests, most of the pits were flat-pits scaled from 4 to 18μm with a density of 500-900 mm-2, few with a bulge in the bottom. The depth of the pits increased with their size, which can be 2.5μm for the largest ones. In the 355nm-1ns tests, pits appeared to be similar with those in 355nm-7ns tests, with a smaller size of 4-6 μm, The damage pits were preliminary inferred to be formed because of the material removal induced by the thermal stress.
Laser-induced damage in optical components has always been a key challenge in the development of high-power laser systems. In picosecond regime, the laser-matter interactions are quite complex and the damage mechanism is not yet understood. Therefore, it is necessary to investigate the laser induced damage of optical components in picosecond regime. Our previous study on the laser induced damage in HfO2/SiO2 high-reflective (HR) coatings in 30-ps laser pulses reported the damage morphologies to be high-density micrometer-scale pits, which are similar to the morphologies of HR coatings irradiated by 355-nm pulses in nanosecond regime. Thus, it makes sense to analyze the damage mechanism of HR coatings in picosecond regime by comparing the damage results with those tested with 355-nm pulses. In this study, laser induced damage of HfO2/SiO2 HR coatings are performed by 355-nm, 7-ns pulses and 1064-nm, 30-ps pulses, respectively. Different angles of incidence (AOIs) are operated in the tests, in order to modulate the electric field (E-intensity) distributions in the coating stacks. Damage morphologies and cross-sectional profiles are characterized using scanning electron microscope (SEM) and focused ion beam (FIB), respectively. The laser-induced damage thresholds (LIDTs) and morphologies tested with two different laser pulses are compared. The damage locations are compared with corresponding E-field distributions and the damage reasons are discussed.
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