Previously we have shown that the size of laser induced damage sites in both KDP and
SiO2 is largely governed by the duration of the laser pulse which creates them. Here we
present a model based on experiment and simulation that accounts for this behavior.
Specifically, we show that solid-state laser-supported absorption fronts are generated
during a damage event and that these fronts propagate at constant velocities for laser
intensities up to 4 GW/cm2. It is the constant absorption front velocity that leads to the
dependence of laser damage site size on pulse duration.
We show that these absorption fronts are driven principally by the temperatureactivated
deep sub band-gap optical absorptivity, free electron transport, and thermal
diffusion in defect-free silica for temperatures up to 15,000K and pressures < 15GPa. In
addition to the practical application of selecting an optimal laser for pre-initiation of
large aperture optics, this work serves as a platform for understanding general lasermatter
interactions in dielectrics under a variety of conditions.
Optical components within high energy laser systems are susceptible to laser-induced material modification when the
breakdown threshold is exceeded or damage is initiated by pre-existing impurities or defects. These modifications are the
result of exposure to extreme conditions involving the generation of high temperatures and pressures and occur on a
volumetric scale of the order of a few cubic microns. The response of the material following localized energy deposition,
including the timeline of events and the individual processes involved during this timeline, is still largely unknown.
In this work, we investigate the events taking place during the entire timeline in both bulk and surface damage in
fused silica using a set of time-resolved microscopy systems. These microscope systems offer up to 1 micron spatial
resolution when imaging static or dynamic effects, allowing for imaging of the entire process with adequate temporal
and spatial resolution. These systems incorporate various pump-probe geometries designed to optimize the sensitivity for
detecting individual aspects of the process such as the propagation of shock waves, near-surface material motion, the
speed of ejecta, and material transformations. The experimental results indicate that the material response can be
separated into distinct phases, some terminating within a few tens of nanoseconds but some extending up to about 100
microseconds. Overall the results demonstrate that the final characteristics of the modified region depend on the material
response to the energy deposition and not on the laser parameters.
Laser-induced breakdown in the bulk of transparent dielectric materials is associated with the generation of
extreme localized conditions of temperatures and pressures. In this work, we perform pump and probe damage
testing experiments to investigate the evolution of transient absorption by the host material arising from modifications following confined laser energy deposition in fused silica and DKDP materials. Specifically, we measure
the size of the damage sites observed in the region of spatial overlap between the pump and probe pulses versus
probe time delay and energy. Results of this proof-of-principle experimental work confirm that material
modifications under extreme conditions created during a damage event include transient optical absorption. In
addition, we found that the relaxation times of the induced absorption are very distinct for DKDP and SiO2
even under identical excitation conditions, on the order of 100 ns and 100 μs, respectively.
Currently, most of our thinking about the defects responsible for initiating laser damage considers them as featureless
absorbers. However, an increasing body of evidence, particularly involving multi-wavelength irradiation, suggests
electronic structure of damage initiators is important in determining both initiation and conditioning behaviors in KDP.
The effective absorption coefficient of energy under multi-wavelength irradiation cannot be accounted for by a
structureless absorber, but is consistent with an initiator with a multi-level structure. We outline the evidence and assess
the ability of such a simple multi-level model to explain these and other experimentally observed behaviors.
We use an infrared thermal imaging system in combination with a fluorescence microscope to map the dynamics
of the local surface temperature and fluorescence intensity under cw, UV excitation of laser-modified fused silica
within a damage site. Based on a thermal diffusion model, we estimate the energy deposited via linear absorption
mechanisms and derive the linear absorption coefficient of the modified material. The results indicate that the
damage growth mechanism is not entirely based on linear absorption. Specifically, the absorption cross-section
derived above would prove insuffcient to cause a significant increase in the temperature of the modified material
under nanosecond, pulsed excitation (via linear absorption at ICF laser fluences). In addition, irreversible changes
in the absorption cross-section following extended cw, UV laser exposure were observed.
We investigate the laser-induced damage resistance at 355 nm in DKDP crystals grown with varying growth parameters, including temperature, speed of growth and impurity concentration. In order to perform this work, a DKDP crystal was grown over 34 days by the rapid-growth technique with varied growth conditions. By using the same crystal, we are able to isolate growth-related parameters affecting LID from raw material or other variations that are encountered when testing in different crystals. The objective is to find correlations of damage performance to growth conditions and reveal the key parameters for achieving DKDP material in which the number of damage initiating defects is minimized.
The defects responsible for damage in KDP and DKDP crystals are investigated by analyzing the density of damage sites and their individual morphology under different irradiation wavelengths and fluences. The experimental results indicate the presence of two defect species initiating damage over different wavelength ranges. Disparities in the morphology of damage sites initiated are also observed over each wavelength range.
The interaction of damage initiating defect precursors in KDP and DKDP crystals with laser pulses is investigated as a
function of laser parameters to obtain experimental results that contain information about the type and nature of the
defects. Specifically, the focus is to understand a) the interaction of the precursors with sub-damage laser pulses leading
to improvement to the damage performance (laser conditioning) and b) the synergetic effects during multi-wavelength
irradiation. Our results expose complex behaviors of the defect precursors associated with damage initiation and
conditioning at different wavelengths that provide a major step towards revealing the underlying physics.
We present a multi-parametric experimental investigation of laser conditioning efficiency and behavior in KDP and DKDP crystals as a function of laser wavelength, fluence, number of pulses, and conditioning protocol. Our results expose complex behaviors associated with damage initiation and conditioning at different wavelengths that provide a major step towards revealing the underlying physics. In addition, we reveal the key parameters for optimal improvement to the damage performance from laser conditioning.
While KDP and DKDP crystals remain the only viable solution for frequency conversion in large aperture laser systems in the foreseeable future, our understanding of damage behavior in the presence of multiple colors is very limited. Such conditions exist during normal operation where, for third harmonic generation, 1w, 2w and 3w components are present with different energy ratios as they propagate inside the crystal. The objective of this work is to shed light into the damage behavior of frequency conversion crystals during operational conditions as well as probe the fundamental mechanisms of damage initiation. We have performed a series of experiments to quantify the damage performance of pristine (unconditioned) DKDP material under simultaneous exposure to 2w and 3w laser pulses from a 3-ns Nd:YAG laser system as a function of the laser fluences at each frequency. Results show that simultaneous dual wavelength exposure leads to a much larger damage density as compared to the total damage resulting from separate exposure at each wavelength. Furthermore, under such excitation conditions, the damage performance is directly related to and can be predicted from the damage behavior of the crystal at each wavelength separately while the mechanism and type of defects responsible for damage initiation are shown to be the same at both 2w and 3w excitation.
We present experimental results aiming to reveal the relationship between damage initiating defect populations in KDP and DKDP crystals under irradiation at different wavelengths. Our results indicate that there is more than one type of defects leading to damage initiation, each defect acting as damage initiators over a different wavelength range. Results showing disparities in the morphology of damage sites from exposure at different wavelengths provides additional evidence for the presence of multiple types of defects responsible for damage initiation.
The damage performance of potassium dihydrogen phosphate (KDP, and its deuterated analog DKDP) crystals under multi-wavelength, simultaneous exposure to the harmonics of a nanosecond Nd:YAG laser system is of particular interest because it approximates the conditions taking place during frequency conversion. In this work, damage initiation under simultaneous exposure to two pulses at different wavelengths is investigated as a function of fluence in both KDP and DKDP. We have developed a novel damage testing instrumentation which allows us to measure the damage pinpoint density as a function of laser parameters, including wavelength, fluence, and pulse-length. This new method enables us to carefully quantify the damage effects of both, single-wavelength and dual-wavelength pulsed irradiation. In the latter case, we measure the laser-induced damage behavior when the fluence at one wavelength is varied while the fluence of the second wavelength is kept constant. Our results suggest that the behavior of laser-induced damage initiation under simultaneous multi-wavelength irradiation is complex and crystal dependent.
We describe a new damage testing approach and instrumentation that provides quantitative measurements of bulk damage versus fluence for several frequencies. A major advantage of this method is that it can simultaneously provide direct information on pinpoint density and size, and beam obscuration. This allows for more accurate evaluation of material performance under operational conditions. Protocols for laser conditioning to improve damage performance can also be easily and rapidly evaluated. This damage testing approach has enabled us to perform complex experiments toward probing the fundamental mechanisms of damage initiation and conditioning.
The local structure of KH2PO4 crystals (so-called KDP) at laser-induced damage sites created by irradiation with ~3-ns, 355-nm laser pulses is studied by a combination of Raman scattering and photoluminescence spectroscopies. We compare spectra from pristine material, surface and bulk laser-induced damage sites, as well as from KPO3 references. Results show that irradiation with fluences above the laser-induced breakdown threshold leads to stoichiometric changes at surface damage sites but not at bulk damage sites. New spectroscopic features are attributed to dehydration products. For the laser irradiation conditions used in this study, the decomposed near-surface layer absorbs photons at ~3.4 eV (364 nm). These results may help explain the recently reported observation that surface laser damage sites in KDP crystals tend to grow with subsequent exposure to high-power laser pulses, while bulk damage sites do not.
Spectral emission from optical breakdown in the bulk of a transparent dielectric contains information about the nature of the breakdown medium. We have made time resolved measurements of the breakdown induced emission caused by nanosecond and femtosecond infrared laser pulses. We previously demonstrated that the emission due to ns pulses is blackbody in nature allowing determination of the fireball temperature and pressure during and after the damage event. The emission due to femtosecond pulse breakdown is not blackbody in nature; two different spectral distributions being noted. In one case, the peak spectral distribution occurs at the second harmonic of the incident radiation, in the other the distribution is broader and flatter and presumably due to continuum generation. The differences between ns and fs breakdown emission can be explained by the differing breakdown region geometries for the two pulse durations. The possibility to use spectral emission as a diagnostic of the emission region morphology will be discussed.
KDP and DKDP are unique materials for frequency conversion in large-aperture laser systems. Under high power
irradiation, a threshold exists above which multiple damage sites are formed in the bulk of crystal plates thus obstructing
beam propagation and creating undesirable beam modulations. Damage testing has focused on measuring the irradiation
threshold fluences that lead to irreversible material modifications. However, small amounts of damage in optical
components have been determined not to hinder system performance in large-aperture laser systems. In this work, we
present a new approach to evaluating damage performance that provides statistics on damage pinpoint density, size and
morphology as a function of fluence, wavelength and pulse duration and relates that to the resulting beam obscuration.
We measure the size of damage sites for different wavelengths, pulse-lengths, and fluences. Different pulse-lengths are
approximated by using multiple pulses appropriately delayed with respect to each other. We find that in KDP/DKDP
crystals, the size of damage sites strongly depend on the pulse-length, with longer pulses creating larger damage sites.
Also examined are ways of laser-annealing to increase the damage resistance.
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