<title>Laser-induced damage in dielectrics with nanosecond to spupicosecond pulses I: experimental</title>

Abstract

The authors report extensive laser-induced damage threshold measurements on pure and multilayer dielectrics at 1053 and 526 mm for pulse durations, {tau}, ranging from 140 fs to 1 ns. Qualitative differences in the morphology of damage and a departure from the diffusion-dominated {tau}{sup 1/2} scaling indicate that damage results from plasma formation and ablation for {tau}{le}10 ps and from conventional melting and boiling for {tau}>50 ps. A theoretical model based on electron production via multiphoton ionization, Joule heating, and collisional (avalanche) ionization is in good agreement with both the pulsewidth and wavelength scaling of experimental results.