Damage in Laser Materials: 1971
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AlllOO TfiMfiOt. NATL INST OF STANDARDS & TECH R.I.C. \ UNITED STATES EPARTMENT OF COMMERCE A1 11 00984806 PUBLICATION Symposium on Damage /Damage '"'aser mat 1971 QtlOO .U57 V356;19fl C.I NBS-PUB-C NBS SPECIAL PUBLICATION 356 Damage in Laser Materials: 1971 U.S. DEPARTMENT OF IOC no. 35'^ I??/ c.;2. NATIONAL BUREAU OF SXANDAR08 JAN 2 0 19I?3jNITED states department commerce • Maurice H. Stans, Secretary <^CC NATIONAL BUREAU OF STANDARDS • Lewis M. Branscomb, Director Damage in Laser Materials: 1971 Proceedings of a Symposium Sponsored by the American Society for Testing and Materials and by the National Bureau of Standards May 19-20, 1971, NBS, Boulder, Colorado Edited by Alexander J. Glass Wayne State University Detroit, Michigan 48202 and Arthur H. Guenther Air Force Weapons Laboratory Kirtland AFB, New Mexico 87117 Q , S , National Bureau of Standards Special Publication 356 Nat. Bur. Stand. U.S., Spec. Publ. 356, 174 pages (Nov. 1971) CODEN: XNBSA Issued November 1971 For sale by the Superintendent of Documents, U.S. Government Printing Office, Washington, D.C. 20402 (Order by SD Catalog No. C 13.10:356), Price S1.50 Stock Number 0303-0934 . Forword These proceedings report in detail the formal papers and discussions presented at the 3rd Annual Symposium on Damage in Laser Materials held at the National Bureau of Standards, Boulder, Colorado on May 19 and 20, 1971. This meeting was jointly sponsored by the National Bureau of Standards and the American Society of Testing and Materials. The major topics covered were Diagnostic Development, Damage Testing and Assessment, Damage Theory, and Physical Characteristics of Optical Media of importance in controlling damage, as well as Damage to Thin Film Coatings and Nonlinear Optical Materials. The co-chairmen, Dr. Alexander J. Glass of Wayne State University, Detroit, Michigan, and Dr. Arthur H. Guenther of the Air Force Weapons Laboratory, Kirtland AFB, New Mexico, take full respon- sibility for synopsis of comments following each paper as well as the summary and conclusions of the meeting It is suggested that individuals interested in the subject of this meeting obtain publication NMAB-271, "Report of the Committee on the Fundamentals of Damage in Laser Glass" which is available for sale from the National Technical Information Service, Springfield, Virginia 22151, at a cost of $3.00. Proceedings of the 1969 ASTM Symposium were published in December 1969 as "Damage in Laser Glass", ASTM Special Technical Publication No. 469 "Library of Congress Catalog Card No. 74-102757". Proceedings of the 1970 Symposium were published in December 1970 as "Damage in Laser Materials", National Bureau of Standards Special Publication No. 341 at a cost of $1.25, with "Library of Congress Catalog Card Number 73-609162". It is our intention to convene another symposium next year in Boulder during June to update and document the state of the art on Damage in Laser Materials at that time. This meeting will cover the subject historically presented at these symposia with additional emphasis on thin film damage and surface damage as a function of surface preparation and characteristics, e.g. surface scatter. We shall endeavor to address the problem of the damage of materials and components at 10,6tim, an area of in- creasing importance. We wish to encourage the reader to contact us on matters pertinent to the intent of these conferences. A. H. Guenther Library of Congress Catalog Card Ntimber: 77-181048 Contents Page Foreword ill A. H. Gazntke.n. Summary and Conclusions vl A. J. Gtai,i and A. H. Gatnthzn Introductory Remarks 1 A. J. Glass Keynote Address 2 J. D. Myers Damage by Laser Radiation of Improved Neodymium-Activated Laser Glass, Colored Glasses and Optical Glasses 3 N. Neuroth , R. Hasse and A. Knecht Laser Glass Damage Threshold Studies at Owens-Illinois 15 N. L. Boling and R. W. Beck Investigation of Cumulative Effects in Microscopically Damaged Quartz 24 David F. Edwards, C. Y. She, V. G. Draggoo , T. W. Broberg and G. L. McAllister Plasma Formation Upon Laser Irradiation of Transparent Dielectric Materials Below the Damage Threshold 31 B. E. Henderson, R. R. Getty, G. E. Leroi and D. L. Rousseau Diffusion Effects in High Power Laser Damage 37 Wilbur Franklin Time Evolution of Damage Tracks in Sapphire and Ruby 44 Concetto R. Giuliano Theory of Self -Focusing for Fast Nonlinear Response 51 J. Marburger Electrostrictive Laser Beam Focusing in Glass and Small-Scale Track Formation 61 Edwin L. Kerr The Probability and Dynamics of Damaging Optical Materials with Lasers 76 Michael Bass and Harrison H. Barrett Optically-Induced Physical Damage to LiNbO„, Proustite, and LilO^ 91 Wm. D. Fountain, L. M. Osterink, and G. A. Massey Catastrophic Surface Damage Produced in Ba2NaNbjOj^2 Crystals During Intracavity Frequency Doubling 98 Robert Webb Investigation of Damage in Laser Glass ]^04 Chiyoe Yamanaka , Takatomo Sasaki, Masanobu Hongyo and Yasuaki Nagao Direct Nondestructive Measurement of Self-Focusing in Laser Glass 113 Brian E. Newnam and L. G. DeShazer Ruby Laser Damage Thresholds in Evaporated Thin Films and Multilayer Coatings 119 A. Frincis Turner Investigations 'io\;ard Understanding the Physics of Laser Damage to Thin Dielectric Films 124 L. G. DeShazer and J. H. Parks iv Contents -continued Page An Investigation of Laser Induced Damage to Four Different Single Purpose Anti- Reflection Coatings on Fused Silica Substrates 137 R. Russel Austin and Arthur H. Guenther Minimizing Susceptibility to Damage in CO2 Laser Mirrors 153 H, E. Bennett Appendix Participants 163 V , Damage In Laser Materials 3rd ASTM Symposium May 19-20, 1971 Abstract The third ASTM Symposium on Damage In Laser Materials was held at the National Bureau of Standards in Boulder, Colorado, on May 19-20 of this year. This symposium is held as part of the activity of Subcommittee II on Lasers and Laser Materials, of the ASTM. Subcommittee II is charged with the re- sponsibility of formulating standards for laser materials, components, and devices. The chairman of Subcommittee II is John D. Myers, of Owens-Illinois, Inc. Co-chairmen for the damage symposia are Dr. Arthur H. Guenther, of the Air Force Weapons Laboratory, and Professor Alexander J. Glass, Chairman of the Department of Electrical Engineering at Wayne State University. Approximately 50 attendees at the symposium heard 17 papers on topics relating to laser-induced damage in glass, crystalline materials, nonlinear optical materials, thin film dielectric coatings, and mirrors. Particular attention was given to the processes of plasma formation at dielectric surfaces, and to the role played by self-focusing in bulk damage in solids. The principal conclusions arrived at the Symposium, the content of each of the papers, and recommendations for future investigations are summarized below. The proceedings of these Symposia represent the major source of information in the field of damage in laser materials. The Symposia themselves, along with the periodic meetings of Subcommittee II, provide a unique forum for the ex- change of information regarding laser materials specifications among the manufac- turers and users of laser devices, components and systems. The Symposium also serves as a mechanism of information gathering, to enable the Subcommittee to write informed and realistic specifications. Key Words: Laser damage, laser materials, self-focusing. Summary & Conclusions 1. Principal Conclusions It was apparent from the content of the papers presented at this Symposium that considerable progress has been made in understanding the nature of the processes which lead to material damage under intense illumination. It is now unequivocally demonstrated that surface damage is always accompanied by the formation of a luminous plasma, composed mostly of materials ejected from the surface itself. The process whereby this plasma is formed is sensitive to the cleanliness of the surface, and to the history of the surface finish, which may be the same thing. It is indifferent to the composition or absence of background gas at the surface. It seems possible to affect the surface damage threshold, at least in some materials, by immersing the surface in a liquid, or optically contacting it to a surface of different composition. Some features of the surface damage mechanism remain unclear, such as the effects of surface roughness, the possibility of altering the surface damage threshold by chemical treatment or ion implantation, and the physics of the initiation process whereby the plasma is formed. Since surface plasma formation remains the principal limitation to the operation of glass lasers, and since there is evidence that the threshold for surface damage can be increased, perhaps by factors of ten, by various surface treatments, methods of raising the surface damage threshold in laser glass should receive high priority. The extension of the discussions of the Symposium into the areas of nonlinear optics materials and coated surfaces does not come about from a diminution in interest in damage in laser glass, but instead reflects the increased understanding of the processes whereby glass damage can be avoided. Bulk damage in laser glass resulting from heating platinum inclusions is now a problem of production control, and is well enough understood to be avoided. Once this source of local damage is removed, the threshold for bulk damage in glass, as in most transparent solids, is the threshold for self-trapping. It is now clear, from the elegant work of John Marburger, of the University of Southern California, and Concetto Giuliano, of the Hughes Research Laboratory, independently confirmed by Michael Bass, of Raytheon, that the damage track observed in a broad range of materials is the fossil record of the moving focus generated by dynamic self-focusing of the incident light. The observed threshold for this process, as shown by Edwin Kerr, of Perkin-Elmer is sensitive to the beam geometry, and to the duration of the incident pulse.