The mechanisms which cause a damaging interaction between laser light and optical materials are reviewed. Their dependence on laser pulse duration and wavelength is discussed and available experimental results for short pulse damage thresholds are presented. It is shown that localized absorption in coatings, surface defects, or impurity inclusions generally determines the practical irradiance limit. Intrinsic non-linear processes such as avalanche breakdown or two photon absorption set the upper limit to the safe irradiance level.

Date Published: 21 July 1976
PDF: 7 pages
Proc. SPIE 0076, Ultra High Power Lasers for Practicable Applications, (21 July 1976); doi: 10.1117/12.954754

Published in SPIE Proceedings Vol. 0076:
Ultra High Power Lasers for Practicable Applications
LeRoy E. Wilson, Editor(s)