Lijuan Zhang

Full Aperture CO2 Laser Process to Improve Laser Damage Resistance of Fused Silica Optical Surface

An improved method is presented to scan the full-aperture optical surface rapidly by using galvanometer steering mirrors. In contrast to the previous studies, the scanning velocity is faster by several orders of magnitude. The velocity is chosen to allow little thermodeposition thus providing small and uniform residual stress. An appropriate power density is set to obtain a lower processing temperature. The proper parameters can help to prevent optical surface from fracturing during operation at high laser flux. S-on-1 damage test results show that the damage threshold of scanned area is approximately 40% higher than that of untreated area.

Investigation of Control of Residual Stress Induced by CO2 Laser-Based Damage Mitigation of Fused Silica Optics

A CO2 laser-based annealing technique for the mitigation of damaged sites of fused silica is studied to suppress the residual stress left on the surface. The laser annealing by a linear decrease of the CO2 laser power effectively reduces the residual stress. The residual stress of mitigated sites is characterized by polarimetry, the reduction of the maximum retardance around the mitigated sites with the exposure time of laser annealing fits a stretched exponential equation, and the maximum retardance with optimal laser annealing is reduced (36 ± 3)% compared to that without laser annealing. The residual stress regions are destructively characterized by introducing damage. The critical size of damage leading to fracture propagation for the mitigated sites without laser annealing is in the range of 120~230u2009μm, and the corresponding critical size of damage for the mitigated sites with laser annealing is larger than 600u2009μm. According to the relationship between maximum damage size and critical stress, the residual stress without laser annealing is in the range of 28–39u2009MPa and the residual stress with laser annealing is less than 17 MPa. These results indicate that the CO2 laser-based annealing technique has a positive effect on the control of residual stress induced by CO2 laser-based damage mitigation.

Fabrication of concave microlens arrays by local fictive temperature modification of fused silica

A simple and convenient means of fabricating concave microlens arrays direct on silica glass by using the local fictive temperature modification of fused silica is presented. This method is based on the fact that an increased fictive temperature results in a much higher HF acid etching rate of fused silica. Combining the abrupt local fictive temperature enhancement by the CO2 laser pulse and the subsequent etching by the HF acid solution, concave microlens arrays with high fill factors, excellent smoothness, and optical performance are generated on fused silica.

Monovacancies and Na substitutional defects in PbTe: theoretical positron annihilation study

The electron structures of cubic PbTe and substitutional defects are investigated using the state of the art pseudo-potential plane wave method, in the framework of the density functional theory within the generalized gradient approximation. The structural dependent positron annihilation in cubic PbTe was calculated and the positron lifetimes of the bulk, the Pb mono-vacancy, the Te mono-vacancy and the Na atom substituting on Pb were calculated respectively. The study provides evidence that positrons can distinguish between mono-vacancies and in situ substitutional Na doping. The positron lifetime values were found to be too similar to be distinguished. But calculations of the positron annihilation momentum distribution spectra did show clear differences between the two types of defect and may be exploited to characterize substitutional defects.

The effect of dynamic etching on surface quality and laser damage resistance for fused silica optics

Fused silica optics were treated by dynamic etching using buffered hydrofluoric acid (BHF) with different etching depths. The transmissivity of fused silica slightly increases in deep UV (DUV) range after dynamic etching. Surface qualities of fused silica were characterized in terms of surface roughness, surface profile and photoluminescence (PL) spectra. The results show that dynamic etching has a slight impact on surface RMS roughness.PL defects gradually reduces by dynamic etching, and laser damage resistance of fused silica continuously increases with etching depth extending. When removal depth increases to ~12μm, the damage threshold is the double that of the unetched surface. However, surface profile continuously deteriorates with etching depth increasing. Appropriate etching amount is very important for improving damage resistance and mitigating surface profile deteriorating of fused silica during etching process simultaneously. The study is expected to contribute to the practical application of dynamic etching for mitigating laser induced degradation of fused silica optics under UV laser irradiation.