Fail-safe design for square vacuum-barrier windows

摘要

Laser-induced damage on the tensile side of vacuum-barrier fused silica optics211u001ecan result in catastrophic fracture. This fracture can lead to two possible modes 211u001eof failure: a benign failure resulting in a slow air leak into the vacuum chamber 211u001eor an implosion. In previous work, they measured fracture in round vacuum windows 211u001eand lenses and proposed a fail-safe design that would insure the benign failure 211u001emode by fracturing into only two parts, thus eliminating the possibility of 211u001eimplosion. In this paper they extend the previous work to include square vacuum-211u001ebarrier windows and lenses.