This year’s competition proposed to survey the damage resistance of near-IR high reflectors designed for continuous-wave (CW) laser applications. The requirements for the coatings were a minimum reflection of 99.5% at normal incidence for 1077-nm light. The participants in this effort selected the coating materials, coating design, and deposition method. Samples were damage tested at a single testing facility using a kW fiber laser source capable of delivering up to 10 MW/cm2 peak irradiance on target. A double blind test assured sample and submitter anonymity. The damage performance results, sample rankings, details of the deposition processes, coating materials and substrate cleaning methods are shared. We found that multilayer coatings using tantala or hafnia as high index materials were top performers under CW laser exposure within several coating deposition groups. Namely, dense coatings by ion-beam sputtering (IBS), plasma-enhanced atomic layer deposition (PEALD) and magnetron sputtering (MS) exhibited the lowest absorption & temperature rise upon CW laser irradiation without damage onset up to the maximum power density level available in this study.
A study of the continuous wave (CW) laser induced damage threshold (LiDT) of fused silica and yttrium aluminum garnet (YAG) optics was conducted to further illustrate the enhanced survivability within high power laser systems of an anti-reflection (AR) treatment consisting of randomly distributed surface relief nanostructures (RAR). A series of three CW LiDT tests using the 1070nm wavelength, 16 KW fiber laser test bed at Penn State Electro-Optic Center (PSEOC) were designed and completed, with improvements in the testing protocol, areal coverage, and maximum exposure intensities implemented between test cycles. Initial results for accumulated power, stationary site exposures of RAR nano-textured optics showed no damage and low surface temperatures similar to the control optics with no AR treatment. In contrast, optics with thin-film AR coatings showed high surface temperatures consistent with absorption by the film layers. Surface discriminating absorption measurements made using the Photothermal Common-path Interferometry (PCI) method, showed zero added surface absorption for the RAR nanotextured optics, and absorption levels in the 2-5 part per million range for thin-film AR coated optics. In addition, the surface absorption of thin-film AR coatings was also found to have localized absorption spikes that are likely pre-cursors for damage. Subsequent CW LiDT testing protocol included raster scanning an increased intensity focused beam over the test optic surface where it was found that thin-film AR coated optics damaged at intensities in the 2 to 5 MW/cm2 range with surface temperatures over 250C during the long-duration exposures. Significantly, none of the 10 RAR nano-textured fused silica optics tested could be damaged up to the maximum system intensity of 15.5 MW/cm2, and surface temperatures remained low. YAG optics tested during the final cycle exhibited a similar result with RAR nano-textured surfaces surviving intensities over 3 times higher than thin-film AR coated surfaces. This result was correlated with PCI measurements that also show zero-added surface absorption for the RAR nano-textured YAG optics.
Using a commercial laser system operating at a 532 nm wavelength with 10 ps pulses, experiments were conducted
on polished metal samples to study material removal characteristics from a low number of laser pulse exposures. The
samples were analyzed with a scanning electron microscope and white light interferometer to gather data on surface
deformation and material removal. The effects of energy and various double pulse machining methods were examined.
The results from changing the pulse separation for double pulse drilling are compared to prior work with picosecond and
nanosecond pulse lasers.
Using a picosecond laser system that can operate at 1064, 532, 355, and 266nm wavelengths, experiments were
conducted with polished metal samples to study material removal from a low number of laser pulse exposures. The
samples were analyzed with a scanning electron microscope and white light interferometer to gather data on surface
deformation and material removal. The effects of wavelength, energy and a double pulse exposure method were
examined. Results were compared with simulations that model the material removal rates from ultrashort pulse drilling.
The nanotechnology field is currently undergoing an exciting period of discoveries. It is necessary to bring nanotechnology to physics students. However, there is a lack of nanotechnology experiments developed for the undergraduate labs. By coupling high peak power laser pulses to a highly nonlinear photonic crystal fiber, supercontinuum generation and characterization are incorporated into nanotechnology education in undergraduate physics labs. Because of the fast advance and truly interdisciplinary nature of nanotechnology, the supercontinuum generation in photonic crystal fiber experiment gives physics undergraduate students an opportunity to work with high power lasers, to gain hands-on experience with state-of-art test and measurement equipment, and to access research projects in fiber optics, laser applications and nanotechnology.
Using a factorial design of experiments approach with ANOVA, laser drilling experiments were performed on the semiconductor mercury-cadmium-telluride (HgCdTe). A commercial CPA femtosecond laser system operating at 775nm was used for the experiments. The test variables include laser parameters such as pulse length, fluence, beam shaping using apertures, assist gas, vacuum, and others. The response variable examined for optimization include hole size, hole depth, and melt effects. The analysis yielded an empirical formula for predicting laser drilling effects.
The Penn State Electro-Optics Center will be installing a 10 kW fiber laser at its Northpointe, PA facility in Fall 2005. This presentation will discuss the facility's capabilities and introduce three planned experiments that will utilize the high power near 1μm. The first experiment will be in the area of laser charring effects with semi-transparent composite materials. Previous work had been limited due to spot size requirements and limited available power. The new laser
will enable effects testing up to levels of several hundred W/cm2. The second application will be damage testing of
optical coatings. Coating damage continues to be a major obstacle in the development of HEL systems. The new facility at the EOC will allow us to test optical coating damage at fluence relevant to HEL systems. A third planned application is the demonstration of a low-cost, non-coherent beam combiner. The combiner design will be discussed with preliminary results and plans for range testing at an underground mine location.
The results of the interaction of the first harmonic of a 200 femtosecond laser pulse produced by a Ti:Sapphire commercial laser system and the third harmonic of a 40 ns laser pulse produced by a DPSS Nd:YVO4 laser with various materials are reported. The drilling rates were measured as a function of laser pulse energy and material thickness. Differences in material removal rates were observed between the low and high pulse energy. The dependence of the material removal rate on the sample thickness was measured. The observed dependencies of the drilling rate of a femtosecond laser on the laser pulse energy and material thickness are similar to a nanosecond laser drilling. This supports previously suggested hypothesis that a femtosecond laser system produces pulse containing a nanosecond pedestal with estimated energy comparable to the energy of the femtosecond component.
The results of a study of a single 200 femtosecond laser pulse interaction with thick stainless steel and HgCdTe samples are reported. The threshold pulse energies required to produce sample surface melting are measured. The melt dynamics, material removal rate and evolution of surface morphology were observed for different pulse energies and number of laser pulses. It was observed that, similarly to long laser pulse interaction, a layer of melt can be produced at the sample surface. Increase of laser pulse energy results in melt ejection in the radial direction toward the periphery of the interaction zone resembling evaporation recoil melt removal typical for laser interaction in range from nanosecond to cw. The removal of material from stainless steel sample was observed to be highly nonuniform. The columnar structures were observed on the surface of stainless steel samples. The period of these structures is dependent on laser pulse energy and number of pulses. The observed melting threshold is compared with the theoretical prediction obtained using two-temperature model.
For material processing and laser machining, it is important to shape intensity and phase profiles of the laser beams. For dynamic beam shaping, we suggest the method based on energy exchange during self-diffraction of laser beams in the photorefractive materials. For applications, related to use of the powerful lasers we have tested a possibility of beam shaping by holographic optical elements, recorded in Photo-Thermo-Refractive (PTR) glasses, developed in CREOL. The gratings in PTR glasses are stable up to 400°C with laser-induced breakdown energy threshold of 10 J/cm2 in 1 ns pulses at 1064 nm. High diffraction efficiency more than 95% of gratings recorded in PTR glass allows to achieving high energy transfer that is vital for commercial laser applications. Preliminary results show that flattop distribution of laser intensity may be realized in the diffraction orders.
Ultrashort pulse or femtosecond laser materials processing is an emerging technology that potentially can produce substantial cost savings in the manufacture of a wide variety of Navy systems. A laser micromachining testbed facility utilizing two industrial laser systems, a Ti:Sapphire laser capable of producing pulses of less than 150 femtoseconds and a frequency tripled Nd:YLF laser (351 nm, approximately 50 nsec pulsewidth) has been established at the Electro Optics Center (EOC). The testbed provides the EOC with a facility for feasibility testing of laser micromachining applications and a resource for workforce training. In addition, the testbed provides a unique capability of evaluating ultrashort [150 fs, long wavelength (775 nm)] pulses versus longer pulse, short wavelength (351 nm), high photon energy pulses for micromachining applications. Comparison of processing by the femtosecond and uv solid state laser will reveal the optimal processing for an intended application where throughput, stability and quality of the process can be assessed.
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