Paper
3 March 2000 Pulsed top-hat beam thermal lens: a simple and sensitive tool for in-situ measurement on ultraviolet dielectric components
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Abstract
A mode-mismatched surface thermal lens technique with pulsed top-hat beam excitation and near field detection scheme is developed to measure in situ the thermoelastic response of UV dielectric coatings and bulk materials under excimer laser irradiation. The thermal lens technique is demonstrated to be not only convenient for an accurate determination of the laser-induced damage threshold (LIDT), but also sensitive to measure the thermoelastic response of dielectric coatings irradiated with fluences much below the LIDT, and hence, to carry out time resolved predamage investigation. The minimum detectable surface displacement of approximately 0.002nm is achieved with a simple experimental configuration. Nonlinear absorption of UV dielectric materials and coatings are demonstrated. The surface thermal lens technique is also a convenient technique to distinguish different damage mechanisms: thermal stress induced damage or melting induced damage, depending on the thermo-elastic properties of the substrate. Hence, this technique allows to indicate qualitatively the relative contribution of linear and nonlinear absorption as possible causes for laser damage. Moreover, the nonlinear effect in laser conditioning of a LaF3/MgF2 highly reflective dielectric coating has been observed experimentally.
© (2000) COPYRIGHT Society of Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineers (SPIE). Downloading of the abstract is permitted for personal use only.
Bincheng Li, Sven Martin, Eberhard Welsch, Roland Thielsch, Joerg Heber, and Norbert Kaiser "Pulsed top-hat beam thermal lens: a simple and sensitive tool for in-situ measurement on ultraviolet dielectric components", Proc. SPIE 3902, Laser-Induced Damage in Optical Materials: 1999, (3 March 2000); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.379313
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Cited by 3 scholarly publications.
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KEYWORDS
Dielectrics

Absorption

Optical coatings

Ultraviolet radiation

Excimer lasers

Laser induced damage

Laser beam diagnostics

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