Fabrication of spherical mitigation pit on KH2PO4 crystal by micro-milling and modeling of its induced light intensification

Evolution mechanism of scratch removal based on the implementation of magnetorheological finishing

Scratches on optical components induce laser damage and limit the increase in laser power. Magnetorheological finishing (MRF) is a highly deterministic optical manufacturing technology that can improve the surface roughness of optical components. Although MRF has exhibited significant potential for reducing subsurface damage and removing scratches, the principle and mechanism behind the scratch removal are not sufficiently understood. In this study, the theory of fluid mechanics is used to analyze the pressure, velocity, and particle trajectory distribution near a scratch. A physical model was developed for the differential removal of scratches at the bottom and surface of the optical components. The morphological evolution of the scratch was predicted during removal, and detailed experiments were performed to verify the effectiveness of the proposed model. The results indicate that scratches expand laterally rather than being completely removed. Furthermore, scratch removal efficiency is greater when the removal direction is perpendicular to the scratch rather than being parallel. This study offers an intrinsic perspective for a comprehensive understanding of the MRF technique used for scratch removal, which can be beneficial for removing scratches from aspherical optical systems.

Effect of Pre-Existing Micro-Defects on Cutting Force and Machined Surface Quality Involved in the Ball-End Milling Repairing of Flawed KDP Crystal Surfaces

When serving in extremely high-power laser conditions, KH₂PO₄ (KDP) surfaces are susceptible to incur laser damage points (also known as defects). Using micro-ball end milling cutters to repair and remove the pre-existing damage points on the flawed KDP crystal surface is the most effective method to control the growth of laser damage points on KDP crystal surfaces and prolong their service life. However, there are various forms of micro-defects (such as pits, scratches and brittle fractures) around the laser damage points on KDP crystal surfaces which possess remarkable effects on the micro-milling repair process and consequently deteriorate the repair quality. In this work, combined with nano-indentation experiments, elastic-plastic mechanics and fracture mechanics theory, a constitutive model considering the anisotropic property of KDP crystals and a three-dimensional (3D) finite element model (FEM) were established to simulate the cutting force and surface topography involved in the ball-end milling repairing of flawed KDP crystal surfaces. Besides, the micro-milling experiments were conducted to evaluate the change of cutting force and machined surface quality in the presence of micro-defects with various feed rates. The results show that micro-defects would induce the fluctuation of cutting force and a change of the undeformed cutting thickness (UCT) in the process of repairing the damage points on the crystal surface, which would lead to the brittle-ductile transition (BDT) and affect the machined surface quality. The machined surface quality was found to be deteriorated by the pre-existing micro-defects when the UCT was small (the UCT was less than 375 nm). On the contrary, brittle mode cutting in the local area can be transformed into ductile mode cutting, resulting in an improvement of repaired surface quality that is exhibited by the cutting force and microtopography. This work has great theoretical significance and engineering practical value for the promotion and application of micro-milling repairing technology in the practical manufacturing and operation of KDP optics applied to high-power laser systems.

Revisiting Defect-Induced Light Field Enhancement in Optical Thin Films

Based on a finite-difference time-domain method, we revisited the light field intensification in optical films due to defects with different geometries. It was found that defect can induce the local light intensification in optical films and the spherical defects resulted in the highest light intensification among the defect types investigated. Light intensification can increase with defect diameter and the relative refractive index between the defect and the film layer. The shallow defects tended to have the highest light intensification. Finally, the extinction coefficient of the defect had a significant effect on light intensification. Our investigations revealed that the light field intensification induced by a nano-defect is mainly attributed to the interference enhancement of incident light and diffracted or reflected light by defects when the size of the defect is in the subwavelength range.

Secondary peak of downstream light field modulation caused by Gaussian mitigation pits on the rear KDP surface

Micro-milling has been proved to be the most effective method to mitigate the growth of laser-induced surface damage on potassium dihydrogen phosphate (KDP) crystals used in high power laser systems. However, the secondary peak of downstream light field modulation caused by Gaussian mitigation pits on the rear KDP surface would cause potential risk to damage downstream optics. In order to explore the effect of the mitigation pits on the secondary peak, we numerically calculated the downstream light field modulations caused by Gaussian mitigation pits on the rear KDP surface based on the angular spectrum diffraction theory. The results suggest that the secondary peaks are dependent on the parameters of the width, depth, depth error and title error. Among them, the tilt error and depth have greater influence on the mitigation effect. To reduce the laser damage risk caused by the secondary peak, the depth of the pre-designed mitigated contour should be optimized according to the actual operating conditions. The tilt error and depth error are proposed to be controlled within 1' and 2 μm, respectively, during the micro-milling. Also, the experiments verified the calculation results of downstream modulations and the effects of these parameters on the secondary peak. This work can not only provide available models for evaluating the laser damage risk of secondary peak caused by mitigation pits on the KDP surface but also contribute to the development of optimal micro-milling parameters for laser damage mitigation as well as the installation strategy of optical components employed in the high power laser systems.

Improvement of high-power laser performance for super-smooth optical surfaces using electrorheological finishing technology

Laser-induced damage threshold (LIDT) is a key parameter for optical components heavily influenced by the surface roughness in high-power laser uses. Present polishing technologies often bring about directional micro waviness to the optical surfaces due to path effect. Roughness features of a K9 glass surface were studied in this paper. A new evaluating restriction for power spectral density specification was established, and the off-specification frequency contents were found out. Then the electromagnetic simulation of light field modulation was carried out, and the field enhancement factor reached 12.04, verifying the impact of these contents on the laser damage performance of optical components. To restrain the modulation effect by the textures, electrorheological finishing (ERF) technology was proposed, and the processing was undertaken on the K9 surface. Roughness data converged to minimal Ra 1.00 nm, and the angular spectrum decreased in expected ranges. ERF proved to be effective in eliminating the directional textures and restraining the light intensity modulation of the textures. As a result, the LIDTs of optical components can be improved by ERF processing.

Optimization of morphological parameters for mitigation pits on rear KDP surface: experiments and numerical modeling

In high power laser systems, precision micro-machining is an effective method to mitigate the laser-induced surface damage growth on potassium dihydrogen phosphate (KDP) crystal. Repaired surfaces with smooth spherical and Gaussian contours can alleviate the light field modulation caused by damage site. To obtain the optimal repairing structure parameters, finite element method (FEM) models for simulating the light intensification caused by the mitigation pits on rear KDP surface were established. The light intensity modulation of these repairing profiles was compared by changing the structure parameters. The results indicate the modulation is mainly caused by the mutual interference between the reflected and incident lights on the rear surface. Owing to the total reflection, the light intensity enhancement factors (LIEFs) of the spherical and Gaussian mitigation pits sharply increase when the width-depth ratios are near 5.28 and 3.88, respectively. To achieve the optimal mitigation effect, the width-depth ratios greater than 5.3 and 4.3 should be applied to the spherical and Gaussian repaired contours. Particularly, for the cases of width-depth ratios greater than 5.3, the spherical repaired contour is preferred to achieve lower light intensification. The laser damage test shows that when the width-depth ratios are larger than 5.3, the spherical repaired contour presents higher laser damage resistance than that of Gaussian repaired contour, which agrees well with the simulation results.

The Magnetorheological Finishing (MRF) of Potassium Dihydrogen Phosphate (KDP) Crystal with Fe3O4 Nanoparticles

The cubic Fe3O4 nanoparticles with sharp horns that display the size distribution between 100 and 200 nm are utilized to substitute the magnetic sensitive medium (carbonyl iron powders, CIPs) and abrasives (CeO2/diamond) simultaneously which are widely employed in conventional magnetorheological finishing fluid. The removal rate of this novel fluid is extremely low compared with the value of conventional one even though the spot of the former is much bigger. This surprising phenomenon is generated due to the small size and low saturation magnetization (M s) of Fe3O4 and corresponding weak shear stress under external magnetic field according to material removal rate model of magnetorheological finishing (MRF). Different from conventional D-shaped finishing spot, the low M s also results in a shuttle-like spot because the magnetic controllability is weak and particles in the fringe of spot are loose. The surface texture as well as figure accuracy and PSD1 (power spectrum density) of potassium dihydrogen phosphate (KDP) is greatly improved after MRF, which clearly prove the feasibility of substituting CIP and abrasive with Fe3O4 in our novel MRF design.

Quantitative correlation between facets defects of RDX crystals and their laser sensitivity

In this work, the {210} facets of cyclotrimethylenetrinitramine (RDX) single crystals with different quality were studied by scanning electron microscopy and atomic force microscopy. Their laser sensitivity was then assessed using a direct laser ignition test irradiated with ultraviolet laser (wavelength: 355nm, pulse width: 6.4ns). Quantitative relationships between laser sensitivity and surface defects of RDX (210) and (2¯1¯0) facets were investigated. It is determined that the laser sensitivity exhibits significant correlation with the surface roughness, size of which is comparable with scales of laser wavelength. 3D FDTD simulations disclose that this relationship can be well explained with light intensity modulation effects induced by micro-defects on the initial plane wave.

Role of tool marks inside spherical mitigation pit fabricated by micro-milling on repairing quality of damaged KH2PO4 crystal

Repairing initial slight damage site into stable structures by engineering techniques is the leading strategy to mitigate the damage growth on large-size components used in laser-driven fusion facilities. For KH₂PO₄ crystals, serving as frequency converter and optoelectronic switch-Pockels cell, micro-milling has been proven the most promising method to fabricate these stable structures. However, tool marks inside repairing pit would be unavoidably introduced due to the wearing of milling cutter in actual repairing process. Here we quantitatively investigate the effect of tool marks on repairing quality of damaged crystal components by simulating its induced light intensification and testing the laser-induced damage threshold. We found that due to the formation of focusing hot spots and interference ripples, the light intensity is strongly enhanced with the presence of tool marks, especially for those on rear surfaces. Besides, the negative effect of tool marks is mark density dependent and multiple tool marks would aggravate the light intensification. Laser damage tests verified the role of tool marks as weak points, reducing the repairing quality. This work offers new criterion to comprehensively evaluate the quality of repaired optical surfaces to alleviate the bottleneck issue of low laser damage threshold for optical components in laser-driven fusion facilities.

Near-field enhancement of the nanostructure on the fused silica with rigorous method

A rigorous electromagnetic method is developed to analyze the resonance effect of near field caused by nanoscale subsurface defects, which play a key role in describing absorption enhancement during laser-matter interaction for transparent dielectric materials. The total electric field calculated with this new method is consistent with the result of finite-difference time-domain simulation. The concept of mode amplitude density spectrum is developed to analyze the specific modes of the total field. A new mode parameter is proposed to demarcate the contribution of the resonance. The frequency space is divided into four parts and the resonance effect is analyzed as well as the contributions of different modes to the total field. The influence of the structure parameters on the near-field modulation and energy transference is also discussed. It is found that the enhancement mechanism of the near-field and local absorption is the resonance effect caused by the total internal reflection on the sidewall of the nanostructure. In addition, the surrounding energy is mainly guided into the structure by the root of the structure via the energy flow analysis.

Influence of surface cracks on laser-induced damage resistance of brittle KH₂PO₄ crystal

Single point diamond turning (SPDT) currently is the leading finishing method for achieving ultra-smooth surface on brittle KH(2)PO(4) crystal. In this work, the light intensification modulated by surface cracks introduced by SPDT cutting is numerically simulated using finite-difference time-domain algorithm. The results indicate that the light intensification caused by surface cracks is wavelength, crack geometry and position dependent. Under the irradiation of 355 nm laser, lateral cracks on front surfaces and conical cracks on both front and rear surfaces can produce light intensification as high as hundreds of times, which is sufficient to trigger avalanche ionization and finally lower the laser damage resistance of crystal components. Furthermore, we experimentally tested the laser-induced damage thresholds (LIDTs) on both crack-free and flawed crystal surfaces. The results imply that brittle fracture with a series of surface cracks is the dominant source of laser damage initiation in crystal components. Due to the negative effect of surface cracks, the LIDT on KDP crystal surface could be sharply reduced from 7.85J/cm(2) to 2.33J/cm(2) (355 nm, 6.4 ns). In addition, the experiment of laser-induced damage growth is performed and the damage growth behavior agrees well with the simulation results of light intensification caused by surface cracks with increasing crack depths.