Characterization of KDP crystals used in large aperture doublers and triplers

Martynas Barkauskas; Andrius Melninkaitis; Darius Mikšys; Loreta Meslinaitė; Rimantas Grigonis; Valdas Sirutkaitis; Hervé Bercegol; Laurent Lamaignère

doi:10.1117/12.696249

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15 January 2007 Characterization of KDP crystals used in large aperture doublers and triplers

Martynas Barkauskas, Andrius Melninkaitis, Darius Mikšys, Loreta Meslinaitė, Rimantas Grigonis, Valdas Sirutkaitis, Hervé Bercegol, Laurent Lamaignère

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Proceedings Volume 6403, Laser-Induced Damage in Optical Materials: 2006; 64031V (2007) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.696249
Event: Boulder Damage Symposium XXXVIII: Annual Symposium on Optical Materials for High Power Lasers, 2006, Boulder, Colorado, United States

Abstract

We report on laser-induced damage threshold (LIDT) and UV-laser excited defect formation measurements in large aperture KDP crystals developed as doublers and triplers for mega-Joule laser. Measurements of LIDT were performed according to the ISO 11254-2 standard for repetitive pulses with duration ~ 4 ns and repetition rate of 10 Hz. The results for different laser wavelengths (1064, 532 and 355 nm) and polarizations are presented. The largest LIDT was observed for 532 nm pulses and the 1064 nm wavelength had a strong dependence on laser polarization. The LIDT values at 532 nm and 355 nm also depended on the crystal cutting angle, which is different for doublers and triplers. A comparison of LIDT with earlier reported crystal absorptance at different wavelengths is also performed. The UV-laser induced defect formation was investigated by the means of pump-probe technique. The excitation was performed with a single pulse of ns Nd:YAG laser (355 or 266 nm wavelength) and probing with another Nd:YVO₄ laser system (532 nm) operating at 1kHz. This gave us a temporal resolution of 1ms. The transient absorption of defect states relaxed non-exponentially and fully disappeared in ~10 s. A comparison is made between crystal grown by distinct growth methods and between different laser polarizations. An influence of laser conditioning on UV induced defect state formation is also revealed.

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Martynas Barkauskas, Andrius Melninkaitis, Darius Mikšys, Loreta Meslinaitė, Rimantas Grigonis, Valdas Sirutkaitis, Hervé Bercegol, and Laurent Lamaignère "Characterization of KDP crystals used in large aperture doublers and triplers", Proc. SPIE 6403, Laser-Induced Damage in Optical Materials: 2006, 64031V (15 January 2007); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.696249

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