Effects of wet etch processing on laser-induced damage of fused silica surfaces
Laser-induced damage of transparent fused silica optical components by 355 nm illumination occurs primarily at surface defects produced during the grinding and polishing processes. These defects can either be surface defects or sub-surface damage.Wet etch processing in a buffered hydrogen fluoride (HF) solution has been examined as a tool for characterizing such defects. A study was conducted to understand the effects of etch depth on the damage threshold of fused silica substrates. The study used a 355 nm, 7.5 ns, 10 Hz Nd:YAG laser to damage test fused silica optics through various wet etch processing steps. Inspection of the surface quality was performed with Nomarski microscopy and Total Internal Reflection Microscopy. The damage test data and inspection results were correlated with polishing process specifics. The results show that a wet etch exposes subsurface damage while maintaining or improving the laser damage performance. The benefits of a wet etch must be evaluated for each polishing process.
- Research Organization:
- Lawrence Livermore National Lab. (LLNL), Livermore, CA (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE Office of Defense Programs (DP) (US)
- DOE Contract Number:
- W-7405-ENG-48
- OSTI ID:
- 8359
- Report Number(s):
- UCRL-JC-131224; DP0212000; DP0212000; TRN: AH200117%%102
- Resource Relation:
- Conference: 30th Boulder Damage Symposium: Annual Symposium on Optical Materials for High Power Lasers, Boulder, CO (US), 09/28/1998--10/01/1998; Other Information: PBD: 22 Dec 1998
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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