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Impurity and laser-induced damage in the growth sectors of rapidly grown KDP crystals

Conference ·
OSTI ID:552247
; ; ;  [1]
  1. Lawrence Livermore National Lab., CA (United States); and others
We report the experimental results of impurity contamination and laser-induced damage investigations on rapidly grown potassium dihydrogen phosphate (KDP) crystals. Using absorption spectroscopy and chemical analysis, we determined the impurity distribution in the different growing sectors of KDP single crystals. The level of impurity was dependent on the starting materials and growth rate. We also studied the influence of impurities on the laser-induced damage in fast grown KDP. The laser damage threshold in the impurity-rich prismatic sector is same as in the high purity pyramidal sector within the experimental error. Meanwhile, the laser damage threshold (LDT) at the boundary of the prismatic and pyramidal sectors is less than half of that in the bulk. Furthermore, we found that the thermal annealing of the crystal eliminated the weakness of this sector boundary and increased its LDT to the same level as in the bulk of the crystal. Our result suggests that laser damage occured in the vicinity of a high, localized strain field.
Research Organization:
International Society for Optical Engineering, Washington, DC (United States)
DOE Contract Number:
W-7405-ENG-48
OSTI ID:
552247
Report Number(s):
CONF-961070--Vol.2966
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English