Dr. Binh Trong Do Profile

Dr. Binh Trong Do

at 3 Micron Laser Technology LLC

SPIE Involvement:

Author

Publications (15)

Proceedings Article | 8 March 2023 Presentation + Paper

Challenges in designing and building a high energy, pulsed diode-pumped MWIR Fe:ZnSe laser

Binh Do, Laryssa Skolnik, Jay Skolnik, Thong Nguyen

Proceedings Volume 12399, 123990A (2023) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2648099

KEYWORDS: Crystals, Er:YAG lasers, Semiconductor lasers, Laser crystals, Pulsed laser operation, Mid-IR, Laser marking, Zinc selenide, Upconversion, Windows

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Proceedings Article | 4 December 2012 Paper

The damage mechanism in borosilicate glass generated by nanosecond pulsed laser at 1.064 μm

Binh Do, Mark Kimmel, Michael Pack, Randal Schmitt, Arlee Smith

Proceedings Volume 8530, 853008 (2012) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.979243

KEYWORDS: Plasma, Pulsed laser operation, Electrons, Optical damage, Borosilicate glass, Absorption, Laser scattering, Glasses, Scattering, Ionization

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Proceedings Article | 28 November 2011 Paper

Deterministic single shot and multiple shot bulk laser damage thresholds of borosilicate glass at 1.064 micron

Mark Kimmel, Binh Do, Arlee Smith

Proceedings Volume 8190, 81900Z (2011) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.899301

KEYWORDS: Laser damage threshold, Glasses, Pulsed laser operation, Silica, Borosilicate glass, Electrons, Plasma, Neodymium, Bulk lasers, Picosecond phenomena

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Proceedings Article | 29 November 2010 Paper

How to polish fused silica to obtain the surface damage threshold equals to the bulk damage threshold

Troy Alley, Peter Allard, Rod Schuster, David Collier, Arlee Smith, Binh Do, Alice Kilgo

Proceedings Volume 7842, 784226 (2010) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.868416

KEYWORDS: Polishing, Laser damage threshold, Surface finishing, Silica, Pulsed laser operation, Cerium, Oxides, Q switched lasers, Plasma, Laser induced damage

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Proceedings Article | 17 February 2010 Paper

Deterministic single shot and multiple shots bulk damage thresholds for doped and undoped crystalline and ceramic YAG

Binh Do, Arlee Smith

Proceedings Volume 7578, 75781V (2010) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.841485

KEYWORDS: YAG lasers, Laser damage threshold, Crystals, Ceramics, Pulsed laser operation, Laser crystals, Electrons, Nd:YAG lasers, Plasma, Q switched lasers

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Proceedings Article | 31 December 2009 Paper

Deterministic single shot and multiple shots bulk damage thresholds for doped and undoped crystalline and ceramic YAG

Binh Do, Arlee Smith

Proceedings Volume 7504, 75041O (2009) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.836803

KEYWORDS: YAG lasers, Crystals, Laser damage threshold, Ceramics, Pulsed laser operation, Laser crystals, Electrons, Plasma, Silica, Laser induced damage

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Proceedings Article | 30 December 2008 Paper

Picosecond-nanosecond bulk damage of fused silica at 1064nm

Arlee Smith, Binh Do

Proceedings Volume 7132, 71321E (2008) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.804129

KEYWORDS: Laser damage threshold, Silica, Picosecond phenomena, Q switched lasers, Optical damage, Plasma, Pulsed laser operation, Polarization, Ionization, Laser induced damage

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We are interested in maximizing the performance of fiber lasers and amplifiers, particularly for amplification of ps-ns pulses. The observed pulse energies from large mode area fiber amplifiers routinely exceed the reported bulk damage threshold of silica. We have undertaken a program to establish the intrinsic damage thresholds of silica that are relevant for fiber applications. We use a single transverse / single longitudinal mode Q-switched Nd:YAG laser focused to an 8-µm spot several Rayleigh ranges deep in silica windows for the nanosecond measurement, and a Q-switched, mode locked Nd:YAG laser for the picoseconds measurements. Our key findings include: 1. The damage threshold is deterministic rather than statistical for both ns and ps pulses. The threshold varies less than 1% from location to location. 2. The intrinsic damage threshold of silica is 475±25 GW/cm² (fluence = 3850 J/cm²) for 8 ns pulses and approximately 3 times higher for 14 ps pulses. 3. There is no difference in damage thresholds among Corning's A0, B1, C1, D1, D2, and D5 grades of silica. 4. A tight focus is required to avoid large self focusing corrections and to avoid SBS for the 8-ns pulses. 5. Damage morphologies are reproducible from pulse to pulse but change with focal spot size and pulse duration. In all cases, damage appears to begin exactly at the focus and then move upstream approximately one Rayleigh range. 6. The dependence of the damage threshold fluence on pulse duration is nearly linear for pulse durations longer than 50 ps. The square root of duration dependence reported by several investigators for the 50 ps to 10 ns range is refuted. 7. The variation of damage fluence with pulse duration from 20 fs to 20 ns and beyond is well described by a single electron avalanche rate equation with three fixed rates for the avalanche, multiphoton ionization, and electron recombination terms. 8. Our damage threshold is consistent with the most reliable DC field breakdown threshold. 9. We verified in detail the self focusing corrections and the SBS thresholds for our measurement conditions. 10. The damage threshold is affected little by mechanical strain at levels similar to those in polarization-preserving fiber.

Proceedings Article | 30 December 2008 Paper

Nanosecond 1064nm damage thresholds for bare and anti-reflection coated silica surfaces

Arlee Smith, Binh Do, John Bellum, Rod Schuster, David Collier

Proceedings Volume 7132, 71321T (2008) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.804130

KEYWORDS: Laser damage threshold, Surface finishing, Polishing, Silica, Antireflective coatings, Reflection, Q switched lasers, Coating, Pulsed laser operation, Cerium

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We employed the same measurement techniques that have proven successful for bulk damage thresholds measurements to measure damage thresholds of bare silica surfaces polished using various methods and to measure damage thresholds for antireflection coated silica, again for various surface polishes. Light in a single transverse and longitudinal mode, from a Q-switched Nd:YAG laser is focused to an 8 µm spot on the front and rear surfaces of silica windows polished using ceria, alumina, or alumina/silica to find the damage threshold. We repeated the exercise for the same surfaces anti reflection coated with silica/hafnia film stacks. We used surface third harmonic generation to precisely place the focus on the surfaces. Key findings include: 1. The surface damage threshold can be made equal to the bulk damage threshold. There is a large difference in single-pulse damage thresholds of bare silica surfaces polished using ceria, alumina, and alumina followed by silica. The ceria polished samples have a statistical damage threshold ranging from 50 to 450 GW/cm². The alumina polished surfaces damage at 200-500 GW/cm², with half the spots damaging at the bulk threshold of 500 GW/cm². The windows polished by alumina followed by silica damage almost universally at the bulk damage threshold of 500 GW/cm². 2. There are strong conditioning effects for these surfaces. The ceria polished surfaces have reduced thresholds for multiple pulses. The alumina polished surfaces attain the bulk damage threshold at most locations using multiple pulse annealing. 3. The underlying polishes strongly affect the damage thresholds for the AR coatings. The alumina plus silica polished samples have the highest thresholds, with statistical variations from 150-380 GW/cm². The alumina polished samples damage at only 50 GW/cm², but with annealing the threshold rises to 200 GW/cm², while the ceria polished samples damage at 50-200 GW/cm² with no strong multiple shot effect. 4. We found there was no beam size variation of the damage threshold irradiance for the bare alumina/silica polished samples. 5. We showed that air breakdown does not limit the surface irradiance, silica breakdown does. 6. We recorded damage morphologies for the different surfaces.

Proceedings Article | 14 April 2008 Paper

Overview of Sandia's fiber laser program

Dahv A. Kliner, Ray Bambha, Binh Do, Roger Farrow, Jean-Philippe Fève, Brian Fox, G. Ronald Hadley, Andrea Hansen, Hanna Hoffman, Mircea Hotoleanu, Alexandra Hoops, Wen Hsu, Jeffrey Koplow, Joona Koponen, Sean Moore, Randal Schmitt, Paul Schrader, Joseph Simmons, Kelly Simmons-Potter, Arlee Smith, Mikko Söderlund, W. Joseph Thomes, Georg Wien

Proceedings Volume 6952, 695202 (2008) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.782227

KEYWORDS: Fiber amplifiers, Diodes, Fiber lasers, Optical amplifiers, 3D modeling, Nonlinear dynamics, Optical damage, Performance modeling, Optical filters, Optical pumping

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Proceedings Article | 22 February 2008 Paper

Rate equation model of bulk optical damage of silica, and the influence of polishing on surface optical damage of silica

Arlee Smith, Binh Do, Rod Schuster, David Collier

Proceedings Volume 6873, 68730U (2008) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.774620

KEYWORDS: Laser damage threshold, Silica, Surface finishing, Polishing, Picosecond phenomena, Optical damage, Pulsed laser operation, Plasma, Q switched lasers, Ionization

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Our objective is to understand the mechanism that generates catastrophic optical damage in pulsed fiber amplifiers. We measured optical damage thresholds of bulk fused silica at 1064 nm for 8 ns and 14 ps pulses. The 8 ns pulse is single longitudinal mode from a Q-switched laser, and the 14 ps pulse is from a Q-switched mode-lock laser. The beams in both cases are TEM₀₀ mode, and they are focused to a 7.5 μm spot inside a fused silica window. The pulse-to-pulse energy variations are 1% for 8 ns pulses and 5% for 14 ps pulses. Under these conditions optical damage is always accompanied by plasma formation at the focal spot; we found the damage threshold fluences are 3854 ± 85 J/cm² for the 8 ns pulses and 25.4 ± 1.0 J/cm² for the 14 ps pulses. These fluences are corrected for self focusing. Both damage thresholds are deterministic, in contrast to the claim often made in the literature that optical damage is statistical in the nanosecond range. The measured damage threshold fluences for 8 ns and 14 ps pulses do not fit a square root of pulse duration scaling rule. We interpret the damage in terms of plasma formation initiated by multiphoton ionization and amplified by an electron avalanche. The damage threshold irradiance can be matched with a simple rate equation model that includes multiphoton ionization, electron avalanche, and electron-hole recombination. The damage morphologies are dramatically different in the nanosecond and picosecond cases because of the large difference in deposited energy. However, both morphologies are reproducible from pulse to pulse. We also measured surface damage thresholds for silica windows polished by different methods. We find that cerium oxide polished surfaces damage at approximately 40% of the bulk threshold, with a large statistical spread. Surfaces prepared using an Al₂O₃ polish damaged between 50% and 100% of the bulk damage limit, with a substantial fraction at 100%. Surfaces polished using first the Al₂O₃ polish and then an SiO₂ polish exhibit surface damage values equal to the bulk damage value at nearly every point. We also measured damage thresholds for different sized focal spots. Some earlier reports have claimed that damage thresholds depend strongly on the size of the focal spot, but we find the surface threshold is independent of the spot size.

Proceedings Article | 20 February 2008 Paper

Power scaling of fiber-based amplifiers seeded with microchip lasers

Paul Schrader, Jean-Philippe Fève, Roger Farrow, Dahv A. Kliner, Randal Schmitt, Binh Do

Proceedings Volume 6871, 68710T (2008) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.778388

KEYWORDS: Fiber amplifiers, Optical amplifiers, Fiber lasers, Nonlinear dynamics, Pulsed laser operation, Polarization, Absorption, Scanning probe microscopy, Medium wave, Diodes

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Proceedings Article | 7 February 2008 Paper

Design and performance of a high-repetition-rate single-frequency Yb:YAG microlaser

Randal Schmitt, Binh Do

Proceedings Volume 6871, 687105 (2008) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.764745

KEYWORDS: Q switching, Fabry–Perot interferometers, Semiconductor lasers, Output couplers, Pulsed laser operation, Q switched lasers, Polarizers, Crystals, Diodes

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Proceedings Article | 23 February 2007 Paper

Deterministic nanosecond laser-induced breakdown thresholds in pure and Yb3+ doped fused silica

Arlee Smith, Binh Do, Mikko Soderlund

Proceedings Volume 6453, 645317 (2007) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.701399

KEYWORDS: Laser damage threshold, Silica, Pulsed laser operation, Ytterbium, Laser induced damage, Plasma, Optical damage, Q switched lasers, Surface finishing, Medium wave

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Proceedings Article | 23 January 2007 Paper

Nanosecond laser-induced breakdown in pure and Yb3+-doped fused silica

Arlee Smith, Binh Do, Mikko Soderlund

Proceedings Volume 6403, 640321 (2007) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.696261

KEYWORDS: Laser damage threshold, Silica, Pulsed laser operation, Laser induced damage, Optical damage, Plasma, Ytterbium, Electrons, Optical testing, Transmission electron microscopy

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Proceedings Article | 15 September 2006 Paper

MEMS-activated mirrors for arming and safing in optical firing sets

Randal Schmitt, Binh Do, David Reicher, Stanley Peplinski

Proceedings Volume 6287, 628707 (2006) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.680960

KEYWORDS: Mirrors, Microelectromechanical systems, Optical coatings, Laser damage threshold, Laser induced damage, Dielectrics, Reflectivity, Optical testing, Multilayers, Q switched lasers

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Showing 5 of 15 publications

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