Jinghua Han

Effects of laser plasma on damage in optical glass induced by pulsed lasers

Abstract. Laser-induced plasma can expedite the deposition of incident laser energy and the laser-induced damage in optical glass is considerably affected by the magnitude and distribution of the plasma shock wave. The spatial distribution of energy deposition and expansion pressure of the laser plasma shock wave is analyzed based on the moving breakdown model. Furthermore, damage morphologies are discussed in light of the spatial distribution of pressure and glass properties. It was found that with the increase of laser pulse energy, the shock wave expands rapidly in the direction opposite to the incident laser, resulting in that the damage morphologies transform from sphere to spindle gradually. The laser energy deposits mostly in a narrow plasma channel. The diffusion of the plasma with high temperature and pressure leads to the shock wave; the intensity of which decreases sharply with the axial distance from the centerline. As a consequence, the glass near the centerline fractures and melts, and the refractive index also changes near the end of cracks.

The characteristics of Ta2O5 films deposited by radio frequency pure oxygen ion assisted deposition (RFOIAD) technology

The characteristics of Ta2O5 films deposited by radio frequency pure oxygen ion assisted deposition (RFOIAD) technology were compared to a gas mixture of oxygen and argon (O2/Ar) ion beam assisted deposition experimentally and theoretically, inclusive of optical, electronic, and laser-induced damage resistance. The results showed that the RFOIAD could make removal of the pinholes and oxygen vacancies in the film and increase of the band gap, which resulted in the enhancement of refractive index, breakdown voltage, and the diminution of absorptivity as well as leakage current. The laser induced damage testing suggested that the damage induced damage threshold of the film deposited by RFOIAD could be increased, but the cracks appeared easily due to the concentration of thermal stress. While for the Ta2O5 film deposited using a sputtering gas of the mixtures of oxygen and argon, the porous characteristics were helpful to relief the thermal stress concentration, and the formation of cracks can be avoided.

Fabrication of microhole arrays on coated silica sheet using femtosecond laser

Abstract. A femtosecond (fs) laser beam machining method has been proposed to improve the quality of micromachining. At first, the coated silica sheet is prepared by pulsed laser deposition, then the coated silica is processed by the fs laser. After that, the aluminum film on a fused silica sheet is cleared out by hydrochloric acid (HCl) in a solution of 10%, and then the microhole array is formed on the silica which has better morphologies. Additionally, some mathematical models are constructed to analyze the diffusion of vapors and reflection of shock waves during the machining process. The theoretical results show that the aluminum film can effectively decrease the pressure gradient of the vapors and the reflection of shock wave pressure on the fused silica during the machining process. The simulation is consistent with experimental results. Finally, coating with a film or not has a great influence on the quality of micromachining, but the types of coating films have little influence. In a word, it is an excellent choice to improve the quality of fs laser processing by coating with a film on a fused silica sheet.

Laser effects based optimal laser parameter identifications for paint removal from metal substrate at 1064 nm: a multi-pulse model

Abstract Paint removal by laser ablation is favoured among cleaning techniques due to its high efficiency. How to predict the optimal laser parameters without producing damage to substrate still remains challenging for accurate paint stripping. On the basis of ablation morphologies and combining experiments with numerical modelling, the underlying mechanisms and the optimal conditions for paint removal by laser ablation are thoroughly investigated. Our studies suggest that laser paint removal is dominated by the laser vaporization effect, thermal stress effect and laser plasma effect, in which thermal stress effect is the most favoured while laser plasma effect should be avoided during removal operations. Based on the thermodynamic equations, we numerically evaluated the spatial distribution of the temperature as well as thermal stress in the paint and substrate under the irradiation of laser pulse at 1064 nm. The obtained curves of the paint thickness vs. threshold fluences can provide the reference standard of laser parameter selection in view of the paint layer with different thickness. A multi-pulse model is proposed and validated under a constant laser fluence to perfectly remove a thicker paint layer. The investigations and the methods proposed here might give hints to the efficient operations on the paint removal and lowering the risk of substrate damages.

Thermodynamic damage mechanism of Ni/Cr film on neutral density filter by 1064-nm pulsed laser

Abstract. We investigate the damage characteristics and mechanism of neutral density filters consisting of metal film on K9 glass substrate by 1064-nm pulsed laser. The damage morphologies present marked differences with different laser pulse energies. Specifically, with the increase of laser fluence, the damage pits density increase as well, and at the same time, the cracks appear around the pits and interconnect, which lead to the abscission of film. The damage mechanism has been studied from the viewpoint of embedded impurities in the film. The theoretical results show that the difference between the thermodynamic properties of impurities and film can lead to thermos-elastic stress, which plays important roles in deformation of film, nucleation and propagation of cracks. Last, methods have been proposed to improve the laser damage resistance by controlling the size distribution of impurity particles and increasing the film tensile strength.

Robust double Z-type cavity mode locked Yb:KYW ultrafast laser

Abstract. Semiconductor saturable absorber mirror (SESAM) mode locked Yb doped ultrafast lasers have been widely used in industrial applications. High laser stability against environment change and delivery process are required for industrial laser systems. A double Z-type ultrafast laser cavity was demonstrated experimentally and theoretically. Compared with the conventional Z-type cavity, this double Z-type cavity SESAM mode locked laser is less sensitive to misalignment and can tolerate more arm length changes while still staying cw mode locking.

Laser plasma effects on surface damage characteristics of silicon

Silicon is a key material to electro-photonic detectors, which makes the studies of laser induced damage of silicon significantly important in laser detecting and military applications. The damage characters of silicon under high-intensity nanosecond laser pulses have been investigated in this paper. The results show that the synergy of thermal, shock and spectral radiation effects of laser plasma determines the damage characters in silicon. Due to thermal and shock effects of laser plasma, the material is melt, vaporized, ionized and pushed out in laser irradiated area. This way, pits are formed and the cool ejected effluents are distributed radially. The interference between scattered and incident laser can form a periodic structure because of the periodic distribution of thermal stress in particular area. N, O and Si characteristic spectrum in laser plasma suggests that colored film is the mixture of SiOx:SiNy from laser plasma under repetitive laser pulses.