Laser-induced damage of high power systems: phenomenology and mechanisms

Abstract

Laser damage resistance is a key factor for the operation and the improvement of high power laser systems. Up today laser damage performance of optical components is mainly a defect related material characteristic. Metrology procedures have been developed to realize repeatable and accurate measurements of surface damage density due to nanosecond pulses. These measurement techniques were used to guide the improvement of surface damage resistance. Fractures must be eliminated from surfaces, in order not to suffer a damage growth phenomenon, whose exponential character will reduce the optical lifetime. High intensity hot spots due to beam modulations, spatial and/or temporal modulations, can also cause surface damage. Specific set-ups and experiments were carried out that allowed us to analyze and explain these phenomena: damage initiation mechanisms, damage growth and beam propagation inside the optical components. The presentation aims to highlight relevant progress on these topics (1) initiation mechanisms due to defects show two phases: a first incubation phase followed by the expansion one of the damage site ; it appears also that damage diameters are well correlated with the expansion fluence, (2) a refined bulk observation coupled to a fractal analysis allow the quantification of bulk damage and therefore to explain the laser damage growth and its dependence on beam parameters like pulse length and fluence (3) non-linear amplification of phase and amplitude modulations lead to the amplification of the spatial pre-existing small scale modulations that increase the laser energy density locally and finally the number of damage sites. The whole of results, damage initiation, damage growth and beam propagation, is discussed to the light of the laser damage observed on LMJ optics.