Laser-induced damage threshold in HfO_2/SiO_2 multilayer films irradiated by β-ray

Post-processing can effectively improve the resistance to laser damage in multilayer films used in a high power laser system. In this work, HfO_2/SiO_2 multilayer films are prepared by e-beam evaporation and then β-ray irradiation is employed as the post-processing method. The particle irradiation affects the laser induced damage threshold(LIDT),which includes defects, surface roughness, packing density and residual stress. The residual stress that is relaxed during irradiation changes from compressive stress into tensile stress. Our results indicate that appropriate tensile stress can improve LIDT remarkably. In view of the fact that LIDT rises from 8 J/cm^2 to 12 J/cm^2, i.e., 50% increase, after the film has been irradiated by 2.2×10^(13)/cm^2 β-ray, the particle irradiation can be used as a controllable and desirable postprocessing method to improve the resistance to laser induced damage.

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.

Exploring fs-laser irradiation damage subthreshold behavior of dielectric mirrors via electrical measurements

With ultrafast laser systems reaching presently 10 PW peak power or operating at high repetition rates,research towards ensuring the long-term,trouble-free performance of all laser-exposed optical components is critical.Our work is focused on providing insight into the optical material behavior at fluences below the standardized laser-induced damage threshold(LIDT)value by implementing a simultaneous dual analysis of surface emitted particles using a Langmuir probe(LP)and the target current(TC).HfO_(2) and ZrO_(2) thin films deposited on fused silica substrates by pulsed laser deposition at various O_(2) pressures for defect and stoichiometry control were irradiated by Gaussian,ultrashort laser pulses(800 nm,10 Hz,70 fs)in a wide range of fluences.Both TC and LP collected signals were in good agreement with the existing theoretical description of laser–matter interaction at an ultrashort time scale.Our approach for an in situ LIDT monitoring system provides measurable signals for below-threshold irradiation conditions that indicate the endurance limit of the optical surfaces in the single-shot energy scanning mode.The LIDT value extracted from the LP-TC system is in line with the multipulse statistical analysis done with ISO 21254-2:2011(E).The implementation of the LP and TC as on-shot diagnostic tools for optical components will have a significant impact on the reliability of next-generation ultrafast and high-power laser systems.

Preparation and laser induced damage properties of rare earth doped BAS glass

Rare earth doped B2O3-Al2O3-SiO2 glass （RExBAS, x=5, 10, 20; RE=La, Sm） were prepared by solid state reaction method. Optical transmission spectra of such glass were characterized by ultraviolet spectrometers, and 1064 nm laser induced damage performance was investigated through the method of ＂1-on-1＂. The results indicated that there was a strong absorptive peak near 1064 nm in SmxBAS glass, the peak was enhanced with increasing x. While LaxBAS glass was transparent to 1064 nm laser, at the same time, the results of laser induced damage showed that the anti-laser induced damage performance of such glass was strengthened with the addition of rare earth oxide. Furthermore, the laser induced damage threshold （LIDT） of SmxBAS glass was significantly higher than that of LaxBAS glass. Consequently, Sm^3＋ doping was favor in the improvement of anti-laser induced damage performance for BAS glass.

Annealing Effects on Structural,Optical Properties and Laser-Induced Damage Threshold of MgF2 Thin Films

The chemical structures, optical properties and laser-induced damage thresholds of magnesium fluoride films annealed at different temperatures were investigated. The results showed that the stoichiometry of MgF2 film changed a little with the increase in annealing temperature. Analysis of the optical properties indicated that excellent antireflection behavior of the film in the range of 200-400 nm can be obtained by the samples coated with MgF2 film. The refractive index increased and the extinction coefficient decreased with increasing annealing temperature. Compared with the asdeposited films, the laser-induced damage threshold was improved after annealing process and decreased with the increase in annealing temperature, which was probably due to the denser film and more absorption centers under higher annealing temperature.

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 threshold in n-on-1 regime of Ta_2O_5 films at 532,800,and 1064 nm

Ta205 films were prepared with conventional electron beam evaporation and annealed in 02 at 673 K for 12 h. Laser-induced damage thresholds （LIDTs） of the films were performed at 532 and 1064 nm in 1-on-1 regime firstly, and then were performed at 532, 800, and 1064 nm in n-on-1 regime, respectively. The results showed that the LIDTs in n-on-1 regime were higher than that in 1-on-1 regime at 532 and 1064 nm. In addition, in n-on-1 regime, the LIDT increased with the increase of wavelength. Furthermore, both the optical property and LIDT of Ta205 films were influenced by annealing in 02.

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.

Damage characteristics of fused silica under low-temporal coherence light

The damage characteristics of fused silica were investigated under low-temporal coherence light(LTCL).It was found that the laser-induced damage threshold(LIDT)of fused silica for the LTCL was lower than that of the single longitudinal mode pulse laser,and for the LTCLs,the LIDTs decrease with the increasing of laser bandwidth,which is not consistent with the temporal spike intensity.This is due to the nonlinear self-focusing effect and multi-pulse accumulation effect.The specific reasons were analyzed based on theoretical simulation and experimental study.This research work is helpful and of great significance for the construction of high-power LTCL devices.

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.

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.

1064 nm负滤光片的设计与制备

针对当前可见-近红外光电探测器的激光防护要求,研究了1064 nm负滤光片的设计和制备。基于等效折射率理论,综合考虑光谱和场强分布优化,设计了由SiO2/Y_(2)O_(3)/H4组合的规整膜系和SiO2/H4组合的非规整膜系负滤光片;采用离子束辅助热蒸发沉积方式对负滤光片进行了制备,并测试了其光学和抗激光损伤性能。结果表明:在膜系结构G|(0.5LH0.5L)s|A两侧匹配减反膜可以有效减小通带波纹,调整膜系最外层厚度可以同时改善膜系的光谱特性和电场强度分布。镀制的规整膜系负滤光片在400~900 nm和1200~2000 nm波段平均透过率分别为89.98%和93.21%,1064 nm透过率为1.29%,激光损伤阈值为6.0 J/cm^(2);非规整膜系负滤光片在650~900 nm和1200~2000 nm波段平均透过率分别为93.70%和94.99%,1064 nm透过率为1.60%,激光损伤阈值为6.8 J/cm^(2)。

高抗激光损伤阈值光栅后处理抛光技术研究

脉冲压缩光栅是实现高能量激光的核心光学元器件,其制造过程中产生的表面污染物和微结构缺陷成为限制高功率激光系统发展的技术瓶颈,为了提升光栅的激光诱导损伤阈值,提出利用磁性复合流体进行脉冲压缩光栅(PCG)后处理抛光研究。对抛光前后光栅样品的微观结构,表面形貌、表面粗糙度、衍射效率和激光诱导损伤阈值等参数进行测量,进行抛光前后光栅表面质量和光栅性能的评估。研究发现,磁性复合流体抛光能够在不破坏实际光栅结构的前提下抑制加工过程产生的毛刺,微结构缺陷等;经3 min抛光后,光栅顶部表面粗糙度从21.36 nm下降到3.73 nm;激光诱导损伤阈值从2.8 J/cm^(2)提高到3.8 J/cm^(2),抗激光损伤性能提升35.7%,且不影响衍射效率。实验结果表明:磁性复合流体抛光是一种可以提高光栅元件表面质量,提升光栅元件光学性能的有效方法。

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.

激光薄膜的设计与制备

目的研究激光薄膜的膜系结构及提高激光损伤阈值的制备工艺。方法基于场强优化分布，设计Si基底上3～5μm增透、1064nm截止的激光薄膜，对镀后的薄膜进行激光辐照处理和真空退火处理，分析薄膜的相关性能。结果薄膜内部不同的场强分布会对其激光损伤特性产生不同的影响。在满足光学性能的情况下．采用适当的膜系结构，使膜层／膜层界面处的电场强度降低，或者使最大电场强度存在于激光损伤阈值较高的材料中．可有效提高整个膜系的激光损伤阈值。采用激光辐照处理和真空退火处理，也可以提高薄膜的激光损伤阈值。结论经过优化设计、激光辐照和真空退火处理，最终可使Si基底上红外减反薄膜的激光损伤阈值提高到6．2J／cm^2。

光学元件改性处理对激光损伤阈值的影响

针对355nm激光作用于熔石英光学元件后其损伤阈值容易变差的问题,提出使用1.7%纯HF溶液和0.4%HF与1.2%NH4F混合的BOE溶液对样品进行处理来提高它们的激光诱导损伤阈值(LIDT)。在相同的条件下将熔石英光学元件浸没到上述两种不同的刻蚀溶液中进行处理,通过测量刻蚀过程中元件重量变化来计算刻蚀速率,利用Zygo轮廓仪测试元件表面粗糙度,然后对355nm激光照射下熔石英元件的损伤阈值情况进行研究。损伤测试表明,LIDT与元件的材料去除深度有关系,用两种刻蚀液刻蚀去除一定深度后,LIDT均有增加,但是进一步去除会显著地降低元件的LIDT。在处理过程中,这两种刻蚀液的去除速率都很稳定,分别为85.9nm/min和58.6nm/min左右。另外,元件表面的粗糙度会随着刻蚀时间的增加而变大。在刻蚀过程中还通过纳米技术测量了熔石英元件表面的硬度及杨氏系数,不过没有证据表明其与激光诱导损伤有明确的关系。

阶段离子束辅助法制备基频减反膜

在研究阶段离子束辅助制备方式对薄膜性质影响的基础上,采用电子枪蒸发及离子束辅助沉积制备了氧化铪及氧化硅单层膜,采用阶段离子束辅助沉积及全程非离子束辅助沉积制备了基频减反膜。测量了所有样品的弱吸收、残余应力和激光损伤阈值。结果发现,相对电子枪热蒸发制备的样品,离子束辅助沉积的单层膜具有大的弱吸收、低的激光损伤阈值,且张应力减小,压应力增加;阶段离子束辅助沉积制备的减反膜剩余应力变小,弱吸收稍微增加,激光损伤阈值从10.91 J/cm2增加到18 J/cm2。分析表明,离子束辅助沉积在引入提高样品激光损伤阈值有利因素的同时,也引入了不利因素,阶段离子束辅助沉积在引入有利因素的同时,有效减少了不利因素的引入,从而提高了样品的激光损伤阈值。

磁流变抛光对熔石英激光损伤特性的影响

为进一步提升熔石英元件的激光损伤阈值,研究了氢氟酸(HF)动态酸刻蚀条件下磁流变抛光工艺对熔石英元件激光损伤特性的影响规律。首先,采用不同工艺制备熔石英元件,测量它们的表面粗糙度。然后,采用飞行时间-二次离子质谱法(OF-SIMS)检测磁流变加工前后熔石英元件中金属杂质元素的含量和深度;采用1-on-1方法测试激光损伤阈值,观测损伤形貌,并对损伤坑的形态进行统计。最后,分析了磁流变抛光工艺提升熔石英损伤阈值的原因。与未经磁流变处理的熔石英元件进行了对比,结果显示:磁流变抛光使熔石英元件的零概率激光损伤阈值提升了23.3%,金属杂质元素含量也显著降低,尤其是对熔石英激光损伤特性有重要影响的Ce元素被完全消除。得到的结果表明,磁流变抛光工艺能够被用作HF酸动态酸刻蚀的前道处理工艺。

中红外高激光破坏阈值薄膜的研究

针对中红外波段(尤其是2.94μm波长),选择合适的薄膜材料并结合适当的制备工艺参数,优化制备出了几种高破坏阈值2.94μm激光腔镜。使用了1.06μm和2.94μm两种波长的激光对样品进行了破坏阈值实验。通过实验结果进行对比,总结出该波段高破坏阈值光学薄膜的一些独特性质以及镀制要求,得出一套有效地镀制高激光破坏阈值中红外薄膜的方案。所镀腔镜经过自制的自由震荡式长脉宽2.94μm Er:YAG激光器的使用检验,满足使用要求。

激光辐照下金纳米缺陷诱导光学玻璃损伤特性

采用离子束溅射的方式,在K9玻璃基片表面引入金纳米杂质缺陷,通过原子力显微镜(AFM)测得金纳米尺寸直径在50~100 nm之间。采用不同能量密度的激光对样品进行点阵式的单脉冲辐照(1-on-1)并且对损伤阈值及典型损伤形貌进行了实验及理论分析。损伤阈值采用零几率处的损伤密度。结果表明:引入金纳米杂质缺陷后其抗激光损伤阈值由裸基片的26.6 J/cm2下降为15.5 J/cm^2。通过微分干涉显微镜,随着激光能量的增加,损伤呈爆炸坑形貌,主要呈现纵向加剧损伤。金纳米杂质缺陷在K9玻璃基片上形成了强吸收中心(引入金纳米杂质K9玻璃基片的弱吸收(47.33 ppm,1 ppm=10^(-6))是裸K9玻璃基片(3.57 ppm)的13倍)造成局部高温,这是造成损伤的诱因。通过计算,金纳米杂质对K9玻璃基片的作用包括两部分:当激光辐照在K9玻璃基片上,首先是热应力引起玻璃的破裂;随后杂质汽化产生的蒸汽压加剧材料的破坏,引起局部炸裂。