Engineered Defects for Investigation of Laser-Induced Damage of Fused Silica

摘要

Embedded gold and mechanical deformation in silica were used to investigate initiation of laser-induced damage at 3.55-nm (7.6 ns). The nanoparticle-covered surfaces were coated with between 0 and 500 nm of SiO(sub 2) by e-beam deposition. The threshold for observable damage and initiation site morphology for these 'engineered' surfaces was determined. The gold nanoparticle coated surfaces with 500nm SiO(sub 2) coating exhibited pinpoint damage threshold of lesser than 0.7 J/cm(sup 2) determined by light scattering and Nomarski microscopy. The gold nanoparticle coated surfaces with the 100nm SiO(sub 2) coatings exhibited what nominally appeared to be film exfoliation damage threshold of 19 J/cm(sup 2) via light scattering and Nomarski microscopy.