Temperature dependence of nonlinear optical phenomena in silica glasses

Abstract

A linear increase of the laser-induced damage thresholds in silica glasses with decreasing the temperature was reported in this conference at last year. Various nonlinear phenomena should be generated in silica glasses besides the damage in high intensity. Temperature dependences of the nonlinear refractive indices and the SBS (stimulated Brillouin scattering) thresholds in silica glasses at temperature 173 K to 473 K were measured with single-mode Q-switched Nd:YAG laser at fundamental wavelength. As the result, the nonlinear refractive indices increased with decreasing temperature. Because the change was not enough to explain the temperature dependence of laser-induced damage thresholds, the temperature dependence of nonlinear refractive indices would be negligible on laser-induced damage thresholds. On the other hand, the SBS thresholds also increased with decreasing temperature. This result means that acoustic phonons arise easily at high temperature. Probably, the SBS phenomenon is one of reasons for temperature dependence of laser-induced damage thresholds.