Wet etching for the mitigation of laser damage growth in fused silica

Philippe Bouchut; Pierre Garrec; Catherine Pelle

doi:10.1117/12.472389

30 May 2003 Wet etching for the mitigation of laser damage growth in fused silica

Philippe Bouchut, Pierre Garrec, Catherine Pelle

Proceedings Volume 4932, Laser-Induced Damage in Optical Materials: 2002 and 7th International Workshop on Laser Beam and Optics Characterization; (2003) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.472389
Event: XXXIV Annual Symposium on Optical Materials for High Power Lasers: Boulder Damage Symposium, 2002, Boulder, CO, United States

Abstract

On the 3ω part of the LIL laser many optical components will have to sustain fluences above 10J/cm². Even if progress in silica substrate technology decreases the number of defects/cm² which can induce a damage under such a laser flux, tens of damaged sites will appear on large surface optics. Knowing that these damaged sites grow exponentially with the number of laser shots, it is a necessity to stop the growth of these defects before the use of the optical component is impaired. In this paper we have used wet chemical etching as a way to circumvent the growth of laser-induced surface damages. SEM characterization of damages at all stages of the process has been carried out. We show that at a reduced damage creation fluence, the use of a highly concentrated HF acid leads to a 93% mitigation rate for those damaged sites that need mitigation. Due to the etching anisotropy, the HF acid concentration is more important than etch depth’s for the mitigation rate of laser induced surface damage in silica.

Citation Download Citation

Philippe Bouchut, Pierre Garrec, and Catherine Pelle "Wet etching for the mitigation of laser damage growth in fused silica", Proc. SPIE 4932, Laser-Induced Damage in Optical Materials: 2002 and 7th International Workshop on Laser Beam and Optics Characterization, (30 May 2003); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.472389

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