Speaker
Description
The systematic and accurate measurement of laser-induced damage threshold (LIDT) of optical components for high-power infrared laser systems remain crucial for the design of next-generation laser-driven accelerator systems. However, despite the limited consistency of experimental data spanning the near infrared (NIR) to the long-wave infrared (LWIR), ISO-based standard tests remain the primary available resource for the LIDT of commercial optical components and do not adequately account for different laser sources or varying experimental conditions. Here, we report LIDT measurements for a broad range of optical components, including windows and mirrors from multiple vendors, under irradiation by 100 fs laser at 0.8 µm and 2 ps laser at 9.2 µm. We compare the measurements with theoretical frameworks based on Keldysh strong-field ionization theory and the Gamaly ablation model, revealing a transition from multiphoton-dominated NIR photoionization to tunneling-assisted LWIR ionization. These results establish optical damage as a fluence-limiting mechanism in high-power laser systems and inform component-specific risk-reduction strategies.
| Working group | WG1 |
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