Femtosecond laser–induced damage characteristics of the novel fluorozirconate glasses

Abstract

In this study, we systematically investigated the femtosecond laser–induced damage and the physical characteristics of a series of multicomponent fluorozirconate (MFZ) glasses: xZrF4–(52–x) HfF4–10BaF2–5SrF2–5CaF2–4LaF3–14AlF3–10NaF (x = 27, 29, 31, 33 mol%, named MFZ27, MFZ29, MFZ31, and MFZ33), and these MFZ glasses were compared with typical ZBLAN glasses. The sizes of damaged craters and the morphology changed under different powers of 800 nm fs laser. They were measured and analyzed with a digital microscope and scanning electron microscopes. The femtosecond laser-induced damage thresholds (LIDTs) of all the samples were calculated using the linear regression method. The highest LIDT of 616.9 mJ/cm2 was obtained in MFZ27. We compared the hydrolytic resistance of ZBLAN glass with that of MFZ27 glass. The laser-induced damage characteristics and the LIDT of the samples after hydrolysis were also studied. To the best of our knowledge, this study is the first to investigate in detail the femtosecond laser–induced damage characteristics using the fluorozirconate glass.