Since the early 1980s, the Institute of Optics & Electronics (IOE) at Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) has accumulated over 40 years of expertise in the research and development of piezoelectric deformable mirror (DM) technologies. This institution has successfully implemented several piezoelectric DMs in diverse application systems. The following paper will outline the historical background of piezoelectric DM technologies at IOE, highlight some recent achievements, and elaborate on the key features, performances, and testing results of these DMs. Specifically, it will cover:1). A high-order DM equipped with 913 actuators; 2).The 2nd generation piezoelectric deformable secondary mirror (PDSM) featuring 241 actuators; 3).A high-density DM boasting over 1000 actuators. Moreover, the paper will discuss the advancements made in the development of higher-order DMs and PDSMs at IOE, CAS.
The deformable mirrors are becoming more and more important in laser systems. As the laser power increases, the deformation of the thin mirror also increases under laser irradiation. In this paper, to reduce the temperature rising, several cooling methods were proposed. These methods include air knife cooling, pole heads cooling, PZTs + pole heads cooling, Cu columns implanted around PZTs cooling, and PZTs inter-infill cooling. This paper mainly calculated the cooling effect of these cooling methods on the deformable mirrors under laser irradiation. In addition, the different cooling media such as water and air was also studied. Based on the results, we found the air cooling effect is poor, and water cooling effect is obvious. The cooling effect of adding heat-conducting sheets and Cu columns is not obvious. It has a good cooling effect when adding a heat-conducting Cu block with the same honeycomb shape as PZTs on the back of the mirror, and the temperature rising can be reduced from 7.46 °C to 2.96 °C. These calculations are valuable for the application of deformable mirror cooling.
KEYWORDS: Coating, Laser systems engineering, Deformable mirrors, High power lasers, Reflectivity, Finite element methods, Distortion, Absorption, Actuators, Oxygen
High reflective (HR) films with low stress and high damage threshold are deposited on a high-density deformable mirror (HDM) for a high-power laser system. The parameters of the laser system are about 5 J, 6 ns, and 200 Hz @ 1064 nm. The surface figure of the HDM is measured before and after coating, respectively. After coating, the surface error of HDM is only 39-nm rms, and the results show that the residual stress of HR films is very small. Then, a Φ50-mm sample and the HDM are tested successively in the high-power laser system. The temperature rise of the sample and HDM are measured in real-time. Finally, the temperature of HDM has risen by 10°C, while the sample is changed by only 1°C.
In order to reduce the thermal distortion of the deformable mirror(DM) and improve the laser beam quality, a new type of a 19-element water cooling deformable mirror was developed, and the finite element model of DM with water cooling part was built. The deformation, temperature rising and high-order aberrations were calculated after applying the laser irradiation to the mirror. Based on the results, we found the distortions and temperature rising of DM with water cooling part are much lower than those without it. The thermal distortion and temperature rising decreased from 0.316 μm to 0.210 μm and from 30.3°C to 27.1°C respectively, and the corresponding removed low-order Zernike coefficient residual error was reduced from 0.068 μm to 0.043 μm. The high-order aberrations between them were different. The results have practical engineering application for the design of DM in future higher power laser systems
With the development of femtosecond laser system, the laser damage threshold of optical components becomes more important. Meanwhile, in order to obtain better laser beam quality and avoid wavefront distortion caused by optical components, more stringent requirements are put forward for the surface shape of the coated surface of mirrors. HfO2-SiO2 high reflective films were fabricated by e-beam thermal evaporation method. Internal stress of the multilayer dielectrics was modulated by changing the design of films and coating process. Finally, the film with an absolute internal stress less than 100MPa was obtained. The laser damage characteristics of the films at 35fs, 1000Hz were studied, and the damage mechanism was analyzed.
In order to analyze thermal distortions of the deformed mirror for laser systems, the finite element model of a 417-element deformable mirror was built. The deformation, temperature rising and high-order aberrations were calculated after applying the laser irradiation to the mirror. Based on the results, we found the distortions became larger and larger while the absorption of multilayers increasing. When the mirror thickness is 1 mm, the deformation and temperature rising were 0.370 μm and 6.68 ℃ respectively. The PV decreased from 0.370 μm to 0.256 μm when the mirror got thicker from 1 mm to 3 mm, and the corresponding removed low-order Zernike coefficient residual error was reduced from 0.285 μm to 0.145 μm. The high-order aberrations of the deformed mirror were little when the mirror surface thickness was 3 mm. The results have practical engineering application for the design of deformable mirrors for laser systems.
High reflection films for 800nm picoseconds laser system requires broad bandwidth, which is usually about ±50nm, or even to ±70nm, and a high laser damage threshold is needed at the same time. Multilayer dielectrics using three materials Nb2O5/SiO2-HfO2/SiO2 were fabricated by electron beam evaporation. Benefit from its high refractive index of Nb2O5 and the high damage threshold of HfO2 films, the multilayer dielectrics were prepared successfully, which have more than 99.5% reflectance within bandwidth larger than 140nm around the center wavelength of 800 nm. The laser damage characteristics of the films at 150ps, 1Hz were studied, and the damage mechanism was analyzed.
YbF3 was proposed as a substitute for ThF4 in anti-reflection or reflection coatings for the infrared range, and the residual stress of YbF3 thin film using APS plasma ion assisted deposition(PIAD) was studied. From the results, we found the anode voltage of PIAD has a large effect on the residual stress of YbF3 thin film, and the refractive index of YbF3 produced with PIAD was higher than without it, with a possible reason close to packing density. Finally, we produced multi-layer reflection coating on a 260mm diameter mono-crystalline silicon substrate. Its surface contour was approximately 0.240λ (λ=632.8nm), and the absorption was lower than 200ppm, which can satisfy the practical requirement.
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