Interaction of laser radiation with matter. Laser plasma

Optical strength of window materials in wide-aperture repetitively pulsed CO₂ lasers

S. G. Kazantsev

Federal State Unitary Enterprise I. S. Kos'minov State Scientific-Research Test Laser Centre of Russian Federation "Raduga", Raduzhnyi, Vladimir region

Abstract: It was established experimentally that irradiation of ionic single crystals by a series of microsecond pulses from a TEA CO₂ laser, of 1 — 15 s duration at a repetition rate in excess of 100 Hz, caused damage at subthreshold intensities as a result of gradual accumulation of thermally induced internal stresses. When the series of pulses were shortened, the dominant damage mechanism was that typical of pulsed irradiation: breakdown at absorbing microinhomogeneities.

PACS: 42.70.Km, 61.80.Ba, 42.55.Lt

Received: 27.03.1998

 English version: Quantum Electronics, 1998, 28:6, 539–541

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