CC BY
9The 30th International Conference on Advanced Laser Technologies
LS-I-17
ALT'23
Laser-induced damage of Mid-IR high-purity nonlinear and laser crystals and glasses under 2-pm laser irradiation
O.L. Antipov
Institute of Applied Physics of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Nizhny Novgorod 603155, Russia
antipov@ipfran. ru
High power and high efficiency coherent sources of mid-infrared (mid-IR) radiation have a wide variety of applications in areas such as materials processing, surgery and disease diagnostics, atmospheric remote sensing and environmental monitoring, among other applications [1,2]. The last decade has seen a notable progress in the design and development of high power solid-state lasers based on Cr2+- or Fe2+-doped chalcogenide crystals (ChCs) such as ZnSe, ZnS, CdSe and others, and solid-state laser systems based on optical parametric oscillators (OPOs). Recently, lasing in the 4.5-5.9 ^m wavelength range was demonstrated in glass samples and optical fibers based on chalcogenide glasses (ChGs) doped with rear-earth ions [3]. At the same time, the scaling of the average and peak power and the pulse energy of mid-IR solid-state laser systems is hindered by the laser induced damage (LID) [4].
This report gives an overview of the recent studies of LID of mid-IR nonlinear and laser crystals and glasses with high purity and different structural quality induced by the CW or repetitively-pulsed nanosecond lasers at 1900-2100 nm. LIDs of nonlinear crystals (ZnGeP2, BaGa4Se7, BaGa2GeSe6 and GaSe) and ChCs (ZnSe, Cr2+:ZnSe and Fe2+:ZnSe) were analyzed [5-10]. The crystals grown in different conditions with the dissimilar crystal-lattice quality were examined. The effect of various crystal quality factors such as the impurity composition, lattice dislocations, and post-growth processing, surface treatments and polishing were discussed. The LID thresholds determined by both the pulse fluence and intensity were studied at various pulse repetition rates, pulse widths, and exposure durations. The thermo-optical lensing and LID of special pure Ge35As10S55 and Ge20As22Se58 glasses under the quasi-CW irradiation with the Tm-doped fiber laser at 1908 nm were also examined [11]. The LID mechanisms and prospects for the improvement of the LIDT threshold in mid-IR nonlinear and laser materials will be discussed in the presentation.
The reported study was financially supported by Russian Science Foundation (grant 22-12-20035, https://rscf.ru/en/proj ect/22-12-20035).
[1] K.L. Vodopyanov, Laser-based Mid-infrared Sources and Applications (Wiley, USA), 2020.
[2] S. Mirov, I. Moskalev, S. Vasilyev, V. Smolski, V. Fedorov, D. Martyshkin, J. Peppers, M. Mirov, A. Dergachev, and V. Gapontsev, "Frontiers of Mid-IR Lasers Based on Transition Metal Doped Chalcogenides", IEEE J. Sel. Top. Quantum Electron., vol. 24 (iss. 5), pp. 1-29 (2018).
[3] M.F. Churbanov, B.I. Denker, B.I. Galagan, V.V. Koltashev, V.G. Plotnichenko, M.V. Sukhanov, S.E. Sverchkov, A.P. Velmuzhov, "Comparison of 4.5-6 ^m luminescent and lasing properties of rare earth dopants in chalcogenide glasses", J. Lumin. vol. 245, 118756 (2022).
[4] D. Ristau (Ed.), "Laser-Induced Damage in Optical Materials (CRC Press Taylor & Francis Group: Boca Raton, FL, USA), 2015.
[5] N.N. Yudin, O.L. Antipov, A.I. Gribenyukov, I.D. Eranov, S.N. Podzivalov, M.M. Zinoviev, L.A. Voronin, E.V. Zhuravleva, M.P. Zykova, "Effect of postgrowth processing technology and laser radiation parameters at wavelengths of 2091 and 1064 nm on the laser-induced damage threshold in ZnGeP2 single crystal", Quantum Electron. Vol. 51, 306-316 (2021).
[6] N. Yudin, O. Antipov, I. Eranov, A. Gribenyukov, G. Verozubova, Z. Lei, M. Zinoviev, S. Podzivalov, E. Slyunko, V. Voevodin, A. Zav'jalov, Ch. Yang, "Laser-induced damage threshold of single crystal ZnGeP2 at 2.1 ^m: The effect of crystal lattice quality at various pulse widths and repetition rate", Crystals vol. 12, 652 (2022).
[7] N. Yudin, A. Khudoley, M. Zinoviev, S. Podzvalov, E. Slyunko, E. Zhuravleva, M. Kulesh, G. Gorodkin, P. Kumeysha, O. Antipov, "The Influence of Angstrom-Scale Roughness on the Laser-Induced Damage Threshold of Single-Crystal ZnGeP2". Crystals vol. 12, 83 (2022).
[8] N.Yu. Kostyukova, A. A. Boyko, I.D. Eranov, O.L. Antipov, D.B. Kolker, A.I. Kostyukov, E.Yu. Erushin, I.B. Miroshnichenko, D.V. Badikov, V.V. Badikov "Laser-induced damage threshold of the nonlinear crystals BaGa4Se7 and BaGa2GeSe6 at 2091 nm in the nanosecond regime", JOSA B, vol. 37, No. 9, pp. 2655-2659 (2020).
[9] Ch. Zhu, V. Dyomin, N. Yudin, O. Antipov, G. Verozubova, I. Eranov, M. Zinoviev, S. Podzyvalov, Y. Zhuravlyova, Y. Slyunko, Ch. Yang, "Laser-induced damage threshold of nonlinear GaSe and GaSe:In crystals upon exposure to pulsed radiation at a wavelength of 2.1 ^m", Applied Sciences, vol. 11, 1208 - 10 (2021).
[10] N. Yudin, O. Antipov, S. Balabanov, I. Eranov, Yu. Getmanovskiy, E. Slyun'ko, "Effects of Processing Technology of CVD-ZnSe, Cr2+: ZnSe, and Fe2+: ZnSe Polycrystalline Optical Elements on the Damage Threshold Induced by a Repetitively-Pulsed Laser at 2.1 |im", Ceramics vol. 5, 459471 (2022).
[11] O. Antipov, A. Dobrynin, Yu. Getmanovskiy, E. Karaksina, V. Shiryaev, M. Sukhanov and T. Kotereva, "Thermal Lensing and Laser-Induced Damage in Special Pure Chalcogenide Ge35As10S55 and Ge20As22Se58 Glasses under Quasi-CW Fiber Laser Irradiation at 1908 nm", Photonics vol. 10, 252 - 13 (2023).
