Pulse-width and pulse-shape dependencies of laser-induced damage threshold to transparent optical materials

Abstract

Theory of pulsewidth dependence of laser induced damage threshold (LIDT) in transparent solids is presented. The damage is supposed to be initiated by thermal explosion of absorbing inclusions. The investigation of thermal explosion is based on an analysis of the heat transfer equation and a new approach to solving this equation is developed allowing to study kinetics of thermal explosion without any modeling presentation of an absorption mechanism. It is shown that the key parameter determining a dependence of LIDT upon a laser pulsewidth, (tau) p, is the heat transfer time, (tau) , from an inclusion to a surrounding medium. At (tau) p >> (tau) a damage threshold is characterized by a laser radiation intensity, whereas at (tau) p << (tau) --by an energy density. The pulsewidth dependence of the LIDT has been investigated for rectangular and gaussian shapes of laser pulses and it has been established that the dependencies considerably differ in these two cases in a range of (tau) p approximately (tau) . An effect of damage statistics, connected with a random spatial distribution of inclusions in a material, is also investigated. For the case of one-type inclusions (single-(tau) inclusions) it is shown: the statistics does not change a functional form of the pulsewidth dependence of the LIDT and correct only the LIDT values by a spot-size factor. Theoretical results are compared with experimental data published by different research groups for the laser damage in a nanosecond-picosecond region.