Laser induced damage in the final optics system is one of the bottleneck problems in the high-power laser system. For almost all the eight beams of final optics assembly (FOA), there are usually damages in the middle areas of the focusing lens in SG-II laser facility. Through detailed analysis, we find a correlation between the damage in the focusing lens and defect in the continuous phase plate (CPP). The main mechanism for downstream damage is regarded as the defect induced light intensification. The phase distribution of the CPP is characterized by coherent diffraction imaging method. Through simulation, we can clearly see a much stronger light intensification in the middle of the beam caused by the real CPP than the theoretical designed CPP. Compared with the designed CPP, there are defects on the CPP causing the downstream intensification. Meanwhile, there are unexpected periodic modulation on the surface of CPP. We assume the central defect is a kind of laser induced defect because the defects caused by the optical processing are randomly distributed. Through ray tracing analysis, we find a ghost image near the center of the CPP position. So the CPP is slightly damaged or modified in the middle area of the ghost image ray, thus forming a defect with strong modulation. A stray light management is proposed base on ground glass to mitigate the ghost image problem. The periodic modulation is possibly formed by the manufacturing process of CPP. Small-period modulation can cause greater downstream modulation. It should be controlled with power spectral density specification in the manufacturing process. Once the laser induced defect problem is solved, the laser induced damage in the middle of focusing lens is greatly mitigated.
High-power laser systems have high requirements on the size, shape, and uniformity of the focal spot. Both continuous phase plate (CPP) and lens array (LA) can be used for beam shaping and smoothing. However, their ability is limited and there are few studies on the cooperation of CPP and LA. In this paper, the joint design of the CPP and LA was proposed, we theoretically analyzed its principle and studied the method to achieve better shaping and smoothing performance. Then, the far-field focal spot properties of three beam smoothing methods of the LA, the CPP, the CPP combined with the LA were obtained and compared through numerical simulation. The result shows that the LA is mainly contribution to shaping and the CPP mainly reduces the high-contrast intensity modulation to a certain extent. The joint design of the CPP and the LA greatly improves the uniformity of the far-field focal spot, which is valuable for expanding the application scope of the CPP and the LA.
UV laser damage is still the key issue of high power nanosecond laser systems. The operation performance of the final optics in SGII-UP facility is first reviewed. Based on a high power laser prototype, laser-induced damage of large aperture final optics at 351nm was experimentally studied, including damage initiation, growth and morphologies. The near filed of 351nm laser beam was precisely measured with a high resolution by using the precision diagnostics system (PDS) to study the effects of laser modulation and propagation on laser damage. The damage behaviors were comprehensively analyzed and the main contributors to laser damage were discussed. The development perspective of final optics system for high power laser system is briefly introduced.
In high power laser system, the upstream flaw could induce light intensification in the downstream, thus damaging the optical component. In most of the research, the shape of the defect model is ideal, for example, Gaussian shape. However, the defect in the real system is non-ideal with different shapes. In this paper, the light intensification effect caused by defects with different shapes are compared by numerical simulation. Results show the shape dependence of downstream light intensification caused by flaws. When only the linear effect is considered, the change of defect shape could change the maximum light intensification factor and the downstream location for the maximum intensity. When the nonlinear effect is also considered, the light intensification effect will be more sensitive to the shape of defects. This research can provide some reference for the beam quality control and defect management in the high power laser systems.
The wedged focus lens of fused silica, one of the final optics assembly’s optics, focuses the 351 nm beam onto target and separates the residual 1053 and 527 nm light with 351 nm light. After the experiment with beam energies at 3ω range from 3 to 5KJ, and pulse shapes about 3ns, the wedged focus lens has laser-induced damage at particular area. Analysis the damage result, there are three reasons to induce these damages. These reasons are beam intensity modulation, optics defect and contamination that cause different damage morphologies. The 3ω beam intensity modulation, one of three factors, is the mostly import factor to induce damage. Here, the n2 nonlinear coefficient of fused silica material can lead to small-scale self-focusing filament because of optics thickness and beam intensity. And some damage-filaments’ tails are bulk damage spots because there are subsurface scratches or metal contaminations.
Laser-induced damage (LID) to optical glass has become a growing problem in high-power laser systems. It is well known that the main reason of glass being damaged is due to defects and impurities in the material. Damage caused by subsurface defects (SSDs) is especially common in actual system running. Accordingly, in the presence of SSDs, a simple and alternative calculation method is developed to evaluate the enhancement of light field around the incident and exit surface. This ray tracing approach, based on the classical optics theory, is very direct and clear to show the optical phenomena of light intensity enhancement. Some basic SSD shapes have been studied and investigated here, which reveals the importance and boundary condition of controlling the size and density of SSDs in grinding and polishing process. Finally, to achieve optimal breadth depth ratio, the least etching amounts by hydrofluoric (HF) acid is investigated. The theoretical analysis and simulation results provide an appropriate range of removal amounts, which is very important in the HF etching process.
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