The Laser MegaJoule (LMJ) is a 176-beamlines facility, located at the CEA CESTA near Bordeaux (France). It is designed to deliver about 1.4 MJ of ultraviolet laser energy on targets set in vacuum chamber, for high energy density physics experiments, including fusion experiments. The commissioning of the seven first bundles of height beams is achieved since November 2019 and the commissioning of next bundles is on the way. For performance requirements, it is important to follow final optics behavior. Moreover, for questions of manufacturability, ease of maintenance and cost, the understanding and the improvement of vacuum windows laser damage resistance are of main importance. The MDCC (Center Chamber Diagnostic System) is thus operating since November 2018 on the LMJ facility. It consists in a high resolution CCD camera combined with a predefined focus set of optics. The resolution of this system is about 100μm with a working distance of 8 m. This system can perform 3 functions: damage detection on the vacuum window surface, the measurement of the spatial profile on the vacuum window plane and of final optics transmission.
The original damage ring pattern at the exit surface of fused silica induced by highly modulated nanosecond infrared laser pulses demonstrates the time dependence of damage morphology. Such a damage structure is used to study the dynamics of the plasma issued from open cracks. This pattern originates from electron avalanche in this plasma, which simultaneously leads to an ionization front displacement in air and a silica ablation process. Experiments have shown that the propagation speed of the detonation wave reaches about 20 km/s and scales as the cube root of the laser intensity, in good agreement with theoretical hydrodynamics modeling. During this presentation, we present the different phases and the associated mechanisms leading to this peculiar morphology: • During an incubation phase, a precursor defect provides energy deposit that drives the near surface material into a plasma state. • Next the silica plasma provides free electrons in the surrounding air, under laser irradiation an electron avalanche is initiated and generates a breakdown wave. • Then this breakdown wave leads to an expansion of the air plasma. This latter is able to heat strongly the silica surface as well as generate free electrons in its conduction band. Hence, the silica becomes activated along the breakdown wave. • When the silica has become absorbent, an ablation mechanism of silica occurs, simultaneously with the air plasma expansion, resulting in the formation of the ring patterns in the case of these modulated laser pulses. These mechanisms are supported by experiments realized in vacuum environment. A model describing the expansion of the heated area by thermal conduction due to plasma free electrons is then presented. Next, the paper deals with the two damage formation phases that are distinguished. The first phase corresponds to the incubation of the laser flux by a subsurface defect until the damage occurrence: an incubation fluence corresponds to this phase. The second is related to the damage expansion that only refers to the energy deposit feeding the activation mechanism up to the end of the pulse: an expansion fluence corresponds to this phase. A striking feature is that the damage diameters are proportional to the fluence of expansion at a given shot fluence. Indirectly, the fluences of incubation by the precursors are then determined.
Some silica plates of high power nanosecond lasers may be a few centimeter thick for instance because they should sustain vacuum. Measuring laser-induced damage thresholds at the output surface of these thick silica plates is a complex task because non-linear laser propagation effects may occur inside the plate which prevents knowing accurately the fluence at the output. Two non-linear effects have to be considered: stimulated Brillouin scattering (SBS) and Kerr effect. SBS is mainly driven by the spectral power density of the pulses: if the spectral power density is below a threshold, SBS is negligible. Thus, spectral broadening is required. Kerr effect depends on the instantaneous intensity. Hence, a smooth temporal shape without overshoots is required. However, both conditions (wide spectrum and no overshoots) are impossible to fulfill with standard lasers. As a matter of fact, an injected laser has a smooth temporal profile but is spectrally narrow. Without injection, the laser is multimode yielding a wide spectrum but a chaotic temporal profile. We solved the problem by phase-modulating a continuous-wave seeder of our laser (patent pending). The phasemodulation frequency is adjusted to a multiple of the inverse of the round-trip time of the laser cavity. The laser pulses have a wide spectrum to suppress SBS and do not exhibit temporal overshoots to reduce Kerr effects. During the presentation, we will show the features of the laser pulses and laser-induced damage measurements of thick silica plates using this scheme.
Seeded nanosecond Q-switched Nd:YAG lasers working with an unstable resonator and a variable-reflectivity-mirror are widely used for they represent useful sources for stable and repeatable light-matter-interaction experiments. Moreover, in most setups, the fundamental wavelength is converted to higher harmonics. When the injection seeder is turned off, random longitudinal mode beating occurs in the cavity, resulting in strong variations of the temporal profile of the pulses. The generated spikes can then be ten times higher than the maximum of equivalent seeded pulses. This strong temporal incoherence is shown to engender spatial incoherence in the focal plane of such unseeded pulses leading to an instantaneous angular displacement of tens of µrad. This effect is even more pronounced after frequency conversion.
The influence of vacuum on nanosecond laser-induced damage at the exit surface of fused silica components is investigated at 1064 nm. In the present study, as previously observed in air, ring patterns surrounding laserinduced damage sites are systematically observed on a plane surface when initiated by multiple longitudinal modes laser pulses. Compared to air, the printed pattern is clearly more concentrated. The obtained correlation between the damage morphology and the temporal structure of the pulses suggests a laser-driven ablation mechanism resulting in a thorough imprint of energy deposit. The ablation process is assumed to be subsequent to an activation of the surface by hot electrons related to the diffusive expansion of a plasma formed from silica. This interpretation is strongly reinforced with additional experiments performed on an optical grating in vacuum on which damage sites do not show any ring pattern. Qualitatively, in vacuum, the intensity-dependent ring appearance speed V ∝ I1/2 is shown to be different than in air where V ∝ I1/3 . This demonstrates that the mechanisms of formation of ring patterns are different in vacuum than in air. Moreover, the mechanism responsible of the propagation of the activation front in vacuum is shown to be outdone when experiments are performed in air.
The rasterscan procedure, developed to test large components, is an efficient method that allows measuring extremely low surface damage density (until 0.01 site/cm2 for large optics). This procedure was improved in terms of accuracy. The equipment, test procedure and data analysis to perform this damage test of large aperture optics are described. The originality of the refined procedure is that a shot to shot correlation is performed between the damage occurrence and the corresponding fluence by recording beam parameters of hundreds of thousands of shots during the qualification. Because tests are realized with small Gaussian beams (about 1mm @ 1/e), beam overlap and beam shape are key parameters which have to be taken into account in order to determine damage density. After complete data analysis and treatment, a repeatable metrology has been reached. The measurement is destructive for the sample. However the consideration of error bars on defects distributions allows us to compare data obtained on a same batch of optical components. This will permit to reach reproducible metrology. Then this procedure provides a straightforward means of comparing the experimental results obtained from several facilities using different lasers. Recently, an additional step has been added to the procedure, a growth step that permits considering only growing damage sites. To the end the lifetime of large optics on high power laser can be predicted.
The morphology of laser-induced damage sites at the exit surface of fused silica is tightly correlated to the mode
composition of the nanosecond laser pulses at 1064 nm. In the single longitudinal mode (SLM) configuration, a molten
and fractured central zone is surrounded by a funnel-shaped surface modification. Ring patterns surround the damage
sites when these are initiated by multiple longitudinal modes (MLM) laser pulses. In this last mode configuration, the
pulses temporal profiles as well as the damage ring patterns differ from pulse to pulse. The appearance chronology of the
rings is found to be closely related to the temporal shape of the laser pulses. This supports that the damage morphology
originates from the coupling of a laser-supported detonation wave propagating in air with an ablation mechanism in
silica. In our experiments, the propagation speed of the detonation wave reaches about 20 km/s and scales as the cube
root of the laser intensity, in good agreement with theory.
With the purpose of understanding nanosecond laser induced damage mechanisms when working with multiple longitudinal mode pulses, an accurate measurement of the temporal profiles is required. In this study, the use of a streak camera with a wide bandwidth is justified through the knowledge of the Nd:YAG spectral characteristics. A statistical and phenomenological analysis of multiple longitudinal modes intensity profiles is then performed through experiments and modeling. The resolution limitation of our photodiodes is also discussed.
The laser induced damage densities measured on fused silica surface are found to be higher when produced with multiple longitudinal mode pulses than those produced by single longitudinal mode pulses at 1064 nm. The enhancement of the three-photon absorption due to the intensity spikes related to longitudinal mode beating might favor the damaging process at this wavelength. At 355 nm the picture is different. The absorption is supposed to be linear and an opposite behavior occurs. Evidences of a process leading to the possible annealing of a part of absorbent defects are discussed in this paper.
The determination of surface damage densities of thick optical components is tricky due to the
occurrence of non-linear effects (Brillouin and Kerr) that affect the beam propagation through the
optics. It is then compulsory to record the beam parameters, mainly the temporal profile, in order to
predict and calculate fluence and/or intensity on the rear surface taking into account the non-linear
beam propagation.
Experiments have been realised with the use of large beams and several phase modulations were
activated, leading to numerous peak intensities due to the occurrence of temporal amplitude
modulations. Results are first compared in the case of thin optics in order to separate the intrinsic
absorptions by the defects which are the weak points of the optics to the effect of the non-linear
propagation. The correspondence between the length of the filaments and the beam parameters has been
realised in order to highlight the relevant beam parameters that have to be considered for the damage
test of thick optics. The whole of measurements and modeling permit us to measure more accurately the rear surface
damage of thick optics due to intrinsic defects.
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