This paper reports a study on correlation between stress field generated by extensive crystalline defects such as
dislocation or growth boundaries and laser damage. It is found that stress fields decrease laser damage resistance. This result is compatible with the hypothesis that laser damage precursors consist of clusters of punctual defects.
Indeed, such defects are affected by stress fields as their concentration varies in order to minimize the free energy of the crystal. Chemical analysis carried out on one of the crystal tend to show that the punctual defects
involved are intrinsic rather than extrinsic.
In order to characterize the effect of thermal annealing on laser damage resistance of KDP,
several combinations of laser conditioning and thermal annealing were applied to two SHG KDP
samples. One sample was tested at 3ω, 16ns and the other one at 3ω, 2.5ns. Results show that
whereas thermal annealing improves laser damage for a 16ns pulse, no effect can be measured at a
pulse length of 2.5ns. Combining laser conditioning and thermal annealing has a stronger effect
on laser damage resistance than laser conditioning alone, even for a 2.5ns pulse length for which
thermal annealing was found to have little or no influence. It was also found that for a short pulse
length maximum gain was obtained when thermal annealing was applied after laser conditioning.
In this paper, the nature of the crystalline phases observed at the surface damage sites resulting from laser
irradiation is investigated by X-ray diffraction. The results are compared against new data on thermal decomposition of
KDP salt. The damage sites consist of polycrystalline KDP and partially dehydrated phases. The comparison with the
thermal decomposition study allows to assign a temperature range to the overall temperature reached by the surface
during the damaging process. Finally, the difference between surface damage and bulk damage is discussed.
In this paper we examine how optical techniques can be used for impurities and defects detection in KH2PO4 (KDP)
components. This is important in so far as some of these defects are responsible for a weaker than expected laser-induced
threshold in these materials. Photothermal deflection, polariscopy, fluorescence and photoexcitation are
investigated with the aim of localizing and identifying the laser-induced damage precursors. Impurities concentration
is measured directly by ICP-AES and Fe is accordingly checked to be at the origin of a higher absorption in the
prismatic sectors of rapidly grown KDP crystals. We also exhibit a fluorescence signal in the near-ultraviolet range
by pumping at 248 nm; in rapidly grown crystals, in the same way as iron, the incorporation rate of the fluorescent
centers is shown to depend on the growth sector.
This study is concerned with the identification of the defects responsible for laser damage observed on
KDP/DKDP frequency triplers used in high power lasers. We reported at BDS 2005 a non destructive high energy X-ray
topographic setup able to characterize lattice imperfections in optics. Results obtained using this technique on KDP and
DKDP crystals are reported and discussed. The influence of each type of defect, observed or likely to exist in optics, is
discussed in light of damage mechanisms recently published. Finally, an experimental setup presumably able to reveal
those defects is proposed.
X-ray diffraction is a non destructive technique used in order to characterize defects in the single crystal. Unfortunately, this analysis can not be performed throughout the whole volume on thick KH2PO4 (KDP) crystals used in the high power lasers systems like NIF and LMJ, these crystals having a thickness close to 10 mm. Considering the usual energy range radiation used for X-ray diffraction and topography (20-30 keV), the beam is rapidly absorbed by the material. However, this problem can be solved by the use of high energy X-ray radiation in order to analyse the complete volume of crystal. The principle of this device will be exposed and preliminary results are shown along with corresponding optical measurements.
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