Laser-induced surface damage of optical materials: absorption sources, initiation, growth, and mitigation

Abstract

Susceptibility to laser damage of optical-material surfaces originates from the nature of the surface as a transitional structure between optical-material bulk and its surroundings. As such, it requires technological processing to satisfy figure and roughness requirements and is also permanently subjected to environmental exposure. Consequently, enhanced absorption caused by mechanical structural damage or incorporation and sorption of microscale absorbing defects, and even layers of organic materials, is always characteristic for optical-material surfaces. In this review physics of interaction of pulsed-laser radiation with surface imperfections for different types of optical materials (metals, semiconductors, dielectrics, etc.), mechanisms of damage initiation, damage morphology, and damage-site growth under repetitive pulse irradiation are discussed. Consideration is also given here to the surface treatments leading to the reduction of damage initiation sites, such as laser cleaning and conditioning, removal of the surface layers affected by the grinding/polishing process, and mitigation of the damage growth at already formed damage sites.