Optical components for high laser flux
Metrology for laser damage

Transparent materials used for high-power applications must have the lowest possible absorption at the wavelength of interest, and very few impurities. There is a wealth of data in the literature, but as we have seen, it can be difficult to compare results obtained by different laboratories, and manufacturing processes have a major impact on flux resistance. We will therefore not give absolute threshold values, but we will mention materials known to be resistant to laser flux.

• Silica (SiO₂) of the synthetic type (UV grade fused silica) is a material of choice as it exhibits very good flux performance from DUV (> 1 J/cm², 10 ns, at 193 nm) to PIR (> 20 J/cm², 10 ns, 1,064 nm).

• In...