Relationship between statistics of laser damage to solid transparent materials and statistics of structural defects

Yu. K. Danileĭko, A. V. Sidorin


Abstract: An analysis is made of the statistics of bulk laser damage on exposure to focused beams. A new method is proposed for determining experimentally the distribution function of the damage thresholds of defects in the low-threshold range. The method involves investigating fluctuations of the distance between the focus of a lens and the most distant damage. Experiments using silicon and gallium arsenide single crystals and pulsed CO₂ laser radiation are reported. It is concluded that the method can be applied to investigate defects in condensed media.

UDC: 621.375.826

PACS: 61.80.-x, 61.70.-r

Received: 06.04.1979

 English version: Soviet Journal of Quantum Electronics, 1979, 9:12, 1532–1535