The effect of laser beam size on laser-induced damage performance

• Published in: Chinese physics B Vol. 21; no. 7; pp. 532 - 535
• Main Author: 韩伟 王芳 周丽丹 冯斌 贾怀庭 李恪宇 向勇 郑万国
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: 01.07.2012
• Subjects: Beams (radiation); Damage; Fluence; Hot spots; Laser beams; Lasers; Optical components; Precursors; Shot; 大口径光学元件; 小口径; 损伤性能; 损失概率; 毁伤概率; 激光损伤阈值; 激光束; 能量密度
• ISSN: 1674-1056; 2058-3834; 1741-4199
• DOI: 10.1088/1674-1056/21/7/077901

The influence of laser beam size on laser-induced damage performance, especially damage probability and the laser-induced damage threshold （LIDT）, is investigated. It is found that damage probability is dependent on beam size when various damage precursors with different potential behaviors are involved. This causes the damage probability and the LIDT to be different between cases under a large-apertnre beam and a small-aperture beam. Moreover, the fluenee fluctuation of the large-aperture laser beam brings out hot spots, which move randomly across the beam from shot to shot. Thus this leads the most probable maximum fluenee after many shots at any location on the optical component to be several times the average beam fluence, These two effects result in the difference in the damage performance of the optical component between the cases under a large-aperture and small-aperture laser.