Publications and Research
Document Type
Poster
Publication Date
10-20-2025
Abstract
Optical technology is pushed to the upper limits of damage with the advent of ultrafast high-power (UFHP) lasers. UFHP are at the forefront of particle accelerators, being used in interaction with electron beams to produce high-gradient electron acceleration, generation of compact radiation sources like inverse Compton scattering and free electron lasers. The UFHP laser levels, repetition rates, and operating environmental conditions lower the damage threshold of the optical components of femtosecond lasers uttering them useless if not used in the given parameters. In this regard, the present study provides the threshold levels for various optical components used in 800nm femtosecond lasers. The optical materials tested, analyzed and discussed here are beta barium borate (BBO), Ti:Sapphire (Ti:Sa), Zinc Selenide (ZnSe), Cadmium Teluride (CdTe), Thalium Bromo-Iodide (KRS 5), and Gallium Arsenide (GaAs), which are of particular interest, as they are the main medium for the optical parametric amplification (OPA), oscillator used for UFHP lasers such as the one at the input stage of the Long Wave-Infrared (LWIR) UFHP laser system at Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL), etc. It is important to mention that current studies of these crystals, in this context, show few to no consistent laser induced damage threshold (LIDT) analysis, making this study an important reference for the UFHP laser community. Post-experiment analysis using optical and scanning electron microscopy revealed detailed damage structure, providing insights into the material behavior under high-intensity laser exposure. As part of this work, we utilized 3DOptix and Select Nonlinear Optics (SNLO) software packages, to design and analyze the experimental results, including beam profile analysis and damage threshold quantification.
Comments
This poster was presented at SPIE Laser Damage Symposium, Rochester, New York, October 20–23, 2025.
This work was supported in part by the U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Science, Office of Workforce Development for Teachers and Scientists under the Visiting Faculty Program.