The compatibly large nonlinear optical effect and high laser-induced damage threshold in a thiophosphate CsInP_(2)S_(7)constructed with[P_(2)S_(7)]^(4-)and[InS_(6)]^(9-)

It is challenging to cooperatively improve the nonlinear optical(NLO)efficiency and the laser-induced damage threshold(LIDT).This work reports a novel IR NLO materials CsInP_(2)S_(7)(CIPS)designed by combination the strategies of alkali metals substitution and microscopic NLO units PS4 introduction based on AgGaS_(2).CIPS was composed of strongly distorted[InS_(6)]^(9-)octahedra and[P_(2)S_(7)]4-dimers constructed by corner-sharing[PS_(4)]^(3-),which increase the NLO efficiency and decrease thermal expansion anisotropy simultaneously.Compared with AgGaS_(2),CIPS exhibited strong phase matchable NLO response ca.1.1×AGS@2.1μm,high LIDT ca.20.8×AgGaS_(2),and IR transparency up to 15.3μm.Structural analysis and theoretical investigation confirmed that large SHG effect and ultrahigh LIDT of CIPS originated from the synergistic contribution of[InS_(6)]^(9-)octahedra and[P_(2)S_(7)]4-dimers.These results indicate that CIPS is a promising NLO candidate in the mid-IR region,and this study provides a new approach for developing potential NLO-LIDT compatible materials.

Experimental damage thresholds of a laser suppression imaging system using a cubic phase plate

The development of laser systems leads to an increasing threat to photoelectric imaging sensors.A cubic phase plate wavefront coding imaging system is proposed to reduce the risk of damage owing to intense laser radiation.Based on the wavefront coding imaging model,the diffracted spot profile and the light intensity distribution on the observation plane are simulated.An experimental device is set up to measure the laser-induced damage thresholds and investigate the morphology of laser-induced damage patterns of the conventional and the wavefront encoding imaging system.Simulations and experimental results manifest the superior laser suppression performance of the proposed method,which can help diminish the undesirable effects of laser irradiation on an imaging sensor.

A nodule dome removal strategy to improve the laser-induced damage threshold of coatings

Various coatings in high-power laser facilities suffer from laser damage due to nodule defects.We propose a nodule dome removal(NDR)strategy to eliminate unwanted localized electric-field(E-field)enhancement caused by nodule defects,thereby improving the laser-induced damage threshold(LIDT)of laser coatings.It is theoretically demonstrated that the proposed NDR strategy can reduce the localized E-field enhancement of nodules in mirror coatings,polarizer coatings and beam splitter coatings.An ultraviolet(UV)mirror coating is experimentally demonstrated using the NDR strategy.The LIDT is improved to about 1.9 and 2.2 times for the UV mirror coating without artificial nodules and the UV mirror coating with artificial nodule seeds with a diameter of 1000 nm,respectively.The NDR strategy,applicable to coatings prepared by different deposition methods,improves the LIDT of laser coating without affecting other properties,such as the spectrum,stress and surface roughness,indicating its broad applicability in high-LIDT laser coatings.

Laser-induced damage thresholds of ultrathin targets and their constraint on laser contrast in laser-driven ion acceleration experiments

Single-shot laser-induced damage threshold(LIDT)measurements of multi-type free-standing ultrathin foils were performed in a vacuum environment for 800 nm laser pulses with durationsτranging from 50 fs to 200 ps.The results show that the laser damage threshold fluences(DTFs)of the ultrathin foils are significantly lower than those of corresponding bulk materials.Wide band gap dielectric targets such as SiN and formvar have larger DTFs than semiconductive and conductive targets by 1–3 orders of magnitude depending on the pulse duration.The damage mechanisms for different types of targets are studied.Based on the measurement,the constrain of the LIDTs on the laser contrast is discussed.

High laser damage threshold LiNa_(5)Mo_(9)O_(30) prism:for visible to mid-infrared range

In this study,an excellent polarization optical crystal LiNa_(5)Mo_(9)O_(30) with wide transmission range and high laser damage threshold was researched in detail.The laser damage threshold of the LiNa_(5)Mo_(9)O_(30) crystal was measured to be 2.64GW/cm^(2),which was the highest among polarized optical crystals.The birefringence in the range of 0.435-5μm was larger than 0.14,while the wedge angle between 31.94°and 32.12°would satisfy the application in this waveband.The extinction ratio of the fabricated prism with the wedge angel of 31.09°was larger than 15,000:1.The results show that the LiNa_(5)Mo_(9)O_(30) prism is an excellent polarization device,especially in the mid-infrared range and high-power applications.

High laser damage threshold reflective optically addressed liquid crystal light valve based on gallium nitride conductive electrodes

In this paper,the feasibility of a high laser damage threshold liquid crystal spatial light modulator based on gallium nitride(GaN)transparent conductive electrodes is proved.The laser-induced damage threshold(LIDT)is measured,and a high LIDT reflective optically addressed liquid crystal light valve(OALCLV)based on GaN is designed and fabricated.The proper work mode of the OALCLV is determined;the OALCLV obtained a maximum reflectivity of about 55%and an on–off ratio of 55:1,and an image response is demonstrated.

Femtosecond laser-induced damage threshold in snow micro-structured targets

Enhanced acceleration of protons to high energy by relatively modest high power ultra-short laser pulses, interacting with snow micro-structured targets was recently proposed. A notably increased proton energy was attributed to a combination of several mechanisms such as localized enhancement of the laser field intensity near the tip of 1 μm size whisker and increase in the hot electron concentration near the tip. Moreover, the use of mass-limited target prevents undesirable spread of absorbed laser energy out of the interaction zone. With increasing laser intensity a Coulomb explosion of the positively charged whisker will occur. All these mechanisms are functions of the local density profile and strongly depend on the laser pre-pulse structure. To clarify the effect of the pre-pulse on the state of the snow micro-structured target at the time of interaction with the main pulse, we measured the optical damage threshold(ODT) of the snow targets. ODT of 0.4 J/cm^2 was measured by irradiating snow micro-structured targets with 50 fs duration pulses of Ti:Sapphire laser.

Research progress on mid-IR nonlinear optical crystals with high laser damage threshold in China

Nonlinear optical(NLO)crystals have been playing an increasingly important role in laser science and technology.The NLO crystals used in the middle infrared(mid-IR)region,compared with the NLO crystals in the other wavelength regions,are still not good enough for the application of high-energy laser.The main defect is that their laser damage thresholds(LDT)are low.Chinese scientists have made a lot of important contributions to the UV and visible NLO crystals.In the last decade,they also did a lot of work on the mid-IR NLO materials.The main purpose of these researches is to increase the LDT and simultaneously balance the other properties.This paper presents a brief summary of their research progress in this topic on three types of materials:chalcogenides,oxides,and halides.The emphasis is put on the design strategy and quality control of the crystals.

Corneal damage effects induced by infrared optical parametric oscillator radiation at 3743 nm

The main aim of this paper is to investigate the corneal damage effects induced by mid-infrared optical parametric oscillator(OPO)radiation.Experiments were performed to determine the corneal damage thresholds of New Zealand white rabbit at the wavelength of 3743 nm for ex-posurédurations of 0.1 s,1.0 s and 10.0 s.Through slit-lamp biomicroscope and histopathology,corneal injury characteristics were revealed.The damage thresholds were 3.73 J/cm^(2),7.91 J/cm^(2)and 31.1 J/cm^(2),respectively,for exposure durations of 0.1 s,1.0 s and 10.0 s.The damage data was correlated by an empirical equation:Radiant exposure at the threshold=9.72×exposure duration,^(0.46)where the units of radiant exposure and exposure duration were J/cm^(2)and second.At near-threshold level,corneal injuries at 1 h post-exposure mainly involved the epithelium,and the epithelium damages repaired at 24-h post-exposure.There are sufficient safety margins be-tween the damage thresholds and the maximum permitted exposures from current international laser safety standard IEC 60825-1.

Investigation on the key aspects of l-arginine para nitrobenzoate monohydrate single crystal:A non-linear optical material

In the contemporary days, non-linear optical materials(NLO) are getting higher attention as per the increasing demand in optical communication and data storage technology. Consequently, they explore various physical properties of the NLO material for their industrial applications. In current report, l-arginine p-nitrobenzoate monohydrate(LANB) single crystals were obtained by adopting slow cooling technique. The structural confirmation of grown single crystal was carried out using single crystal X-Ray diffractometer. Presence of strain within single crystal was deduced using Hall–Williamson relation. Various defects associated within single crystal were assessed using high resolution XRD. Additionally, its crystalline quality was again confirmed by time resolved photoluminescence spectroscopy(TRPL). Using transmission spectra, the cut off wavelength and band gap of the host material was determined to be nearly 420 nm and 2.9 e V respectively. The dielectric property has been recorded by varying the frequency ranging from 50 Hz to 100 k Hz. The curve suggests that dielectric loss value is less at high frequency ensures the suitability of crystal in photonics and NLO based devices.The laser damage threshold values were also measured for single and multiple shots. Thermal parameters of the titled compound were calculated using PPE. In photoconductivity measurement, negative photoconductivity has been observed in titled compound. Microhardness studies were also performed on single crystal to explore its mechanical properties.

Study of the near-field modulation property of microwaviness on a KH_2PO_4 crystal surface

The KH 2 PO 4 crystal is a key component in optical systems of inertial confinement fusion (ICF).The microwaviness on a KH 2 PO 4 crystal surface is strongly related to its damage threshold which is a key parameter for application.To study the laser induced damage mechanism caused by microwaviness,in this paper the near-field modulation properties of microwaviness to the incident wave are discussed by the Fourier modal method.Research results indicate that the microwaviness on the machined surface will distort the incident wave and thus lead to non-uniform distribution of the light intensity inside the crystal;in a common range of microwaviness amplitude,the light intensity modulation degree increases about 0.03 whenever the microwaviness amplitude increases 10 nm;1 order diffraction efficiencies are the key factors responsible for light intensity modulation inside the crystal;the light intensity modulation is just around the microwaviness in the form of an evanescent wave,not inside the crystal when the microwaviness period is below 0.712 μm;light intensity modulation degree has two extreme points in microwaviness periods of 1.064 μm and 1.6 μm,remains unchanged between periods of 3 μm and 150 μm,and descends above the period of 150 μm to 920 μm.

Damage resistance of B4C reflective mirror irradiated by X-ray free-electron laser

In this paper,a simple theoretical model combining Monte Carlo simulation with the enthalpy method is provided to simulate the damage resistance of B4C/Si-sub mirror under X-ray free-electron laser irradiation.Two different damage mechanisms are found,dependent on the photon energy.The optimum B4C film thickness is determined by studying the dependence of the damage resistance on the film thickness.Based on the optimized film thickness,the damage thresholds are simulated at photon energy of 0.4-25 keV and a grazing incidence angle of 2 mrad.It is recommended that the energy range around the Si K-edge should be avoided for safety reasons.

Effect of subsurface impurity defects on laser damage resistance of beam splitter coatings

The laser-induced damage threshold(LIDT)of plate laser beam splitter(PLBS)coatings is closely related to the subsurface absorption defects of the substrate.Herein,a two-step deposition temperature method is proposed to understand the effect of substrate subsurface impurity defects on the LIDT of PLBS coatings.Firstly,BK7 substrates are heat-treated at three different temperatures.The surface morphology and subsurface impurity defect distribution of the substrate before and after the heat treatment are compared.Then,a PLBS coating consisting of alternating HfO2–Al2O3 mixture and SiO2 layers is designed to achieve a beam-splitting ratio(transmittance to reflectance,s-polarized light)of approximately 50:50 at 1053 nm and an angle of incidence of 45◦,and it is prepared under four different deposition processes.The experimental and simulation results show that the subsurface impurity defects of the substrate migrate to the surface and accumulate on the surface during the heat treatment,and become absorption defect sources or nodule defect seeds in the coating,reducing the LIDT of the coating.The higher the heat treatment temperature,the more evident the migration and accumulation of impurity defects.A lower deposition temperature(at which the coating can be fully oxidized)helps to improve the LIDT of the PLBS coating.When the deposition temperature is 140◦C,the LIDT(s-polarized light,wavelength:1064 nm,pulse width:9 ns,incident angle:45◦)of the PLBS coating is 26.2 J/cm2,which is approximately 6.7 times that of the PLBS coating deposited at 200◦C.We believe that the investigation into the laser damage mechanism of PLBS coatings will help to improve the LIDT of coatings with partial or high transmittance at laser wavelengths.

Phase Matching Achieved by Bandgap Widening in Infrared Nonlinear Optical Materials[ABa_(3)Cl_(2)][Ga_(5)S_(10)](A=K,Rb,and Cs)

Large nonlinear optical(NLO)coefficient(d_(ij)),high laser damage threshold(LDT),and phase matching(PM)are crucial for the practical applications of IR NLO crystals.A great number of IR NLO materials with high dij have been explored,but many of them suffer from non-PM,which dramatically decreases their ultimate NLO output efficiencies.To settle this problem,we have developed a new strategy involving modulating normal dispersion via bandgap(E_(g))widening to achieve PM in this work.We synthesized successfully three new wide E_(g)(∼4.0 eV)IR NLO salt-inclusion sulfides[ABa_(3)Cl_(2)][Ga_(5)S_(10)](A=K,1;Rb,2;and Cs,3)with PM behaviors,mainly ascribed to the PM cut-off wavelength blue shift that originated from the wide Eg values,with less contribution from birefringence enhancement.All the compounds possessed large second-harmonic-generation(SHG)efficiency(∼1×AgGaS_(2))and hitherto the highest LDTs(188–200 MW/cm^(2),at 1.06μm,10 ns pulse width)for known chalcogenides with SHG efficiencies comparable to that of commercial silver gallium sulfide(AgGaS_(2))crystal.

Nanosecond laser conditioning of multilayer dielectric gratings for picosecond–petawatt laser systems

Multilayer dielectric gratings(MLDGs)are crucial for pulse compression in picosecond-petawatt laser systems.Bulged nodular defects,embedded in coating stacks during multilayer deposition,influence the lithographic process and performance of the final MLDG products.In this study,the integration of nanosecond laser conditioning(NLC)into different manufacturing stages of MLDGs was proposed for the first time on multilayer dielectric films(MLDFs)and final grating products to improve laser-induced damage performance.The results suggest that the remaining nodular ejection pits introduced by the two protocols exhibit a high nanosecond laser damage resistance,which remains stable when the irradiated laser fluence is more than twice the nanosecond-laser-induced damage threshold(nanosecond-LIDT)of the unconditioned MLDGs.Furthermore,the picosecond-LIDT of the nodular ej ection pit conditioned on the MLDFs was approximately 40%higher than that of the nodular defects,and the loss of the grating structure surrounding the nodular defects was avoided.Therefore,NLC is an effective strategy for improving the laser damage resistance of MLDGs.