Thin film contamination effects on laser-induced damage of fused silica surfaces at 355 nm

Francois Y. Genin; Alexander M. Rubenchik; Alan K. Burnham; Michael D. Feit; J. M. Yoshiyama; Anne Fornier; C. Cordillot; Daniel Schirmann

doi:10.1117/12.354235

23 July 1999 Thin film contamination effects on laser-induced damage of fused silica surfaces at 355 nm

Francois Y. Genin, Alexander M. Rubenchik, Alan K. Burnham, Michael D. Feit, J. M. Yoshiyama, Anne Fornier, C. Cordillot, Daniel Schirmann

Author Affiliations +

Proceedings Volume 3492, Third International Conference on Solid State Lasers for Application to Inertial Confinement Fusion; (1999) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.354235
Event: Third International Conference on Solid State Lasers for Application to Inertial Confinement Fusion, 1998, Monterey, CA, United States

Abstract

Fused silica windows were artificially contaminated to estimate the resistance of target chamber debris shields against laser damage during NIF operation. Uniform contamination thin films were prepared by sputtering various materials. The loss of transmission of the samples was first measured. They were then tested at 355 nm in air with an 8- ns Nd:YAG laser. The damage morphologies were characterized by Nomarski optical microscopy and SEM. Both theory and experiments showed that metal contamination for films as thin as 1 nm leads to a substantial los of transmission. The laser damage resistance dropped very uniformly across the entire surface. The damage morphology characterization showed that contrary to clean silica, metal coated samples did not produce pits on the surface, B₄C coated silica, on the other hand, led to a higher density of such damage pits. A model for light absorption in the thin film was coupled with a simple heat deposition and diffusion model to perform preliminary theoretical estimates of damage thresholds. The estimates of the loss due to light absorption and reflection pointed out significant differences between metals. The damage threshold predictions were in qualitative agreement with experimental measurements.

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Francois Y. Genin, Alexander M. Rubenchik, Alan K. Burnham, Michael D. Feit, J. M. Yoshiyama, Anne Fornier, C. Cordillot, and Daniel Schirmann "Thin film contamination effects on laser-induced damage of fused silica surfaces at 355 nm", Proc. SPIE 3492, Third International Conference on Solid State Lasers for Application to Inertial Confinement Fusion, (23 July 1999); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.354235

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