Short-Pulse Laser Damage in Transparent Materials as a Function of Pulse Duration

Abstract

We present a single-shot damage threshold measurement and modeling for fused silica at 800 nm as a function of pulse duration down to 20 fs. We examine the respective roles of multiphoton ionization, tunnel ionization, and impact ionization in laser damage. We find that avalanche predominates even in the case of sub-100-fs pulses.