[23a-D315-1~11] 3.1 Basic optics and frontier of optics

▲ [23a-D315-5] Laser induced damage threshold measurements of bonded single and poly-crystalline Nd:YAG gain medium

〇Arvydas Kausas^1,2, Takunori Taira^2,1 (1.Inst. for Mol. Sci, 2.RIKEN, SPring-8)

Keywords:Laser Induced Damage Threshold, Surface Activated Bonding, Distributed Face Cooling

The development of petawatt laser systems introduces various challenges for researchers. One of which is to improve the material quality to withstand the high peak powers. The laser crystal growth quality and preparation procedures could play an important role in laser operations. One of the components for PW laser is the Ti:sapphire amplifier system comprised of high energy nanosecond pump source. We propose to implement the distributed face cooling (DFC) approach for such pump source. By periodically bonding Nd:YAG gain medium to sapphire crystal we can operate at room temperature. Because the system consists of multiple bonded interfaces, concerns regarding high power operation could arise and comparison between the bonded interface and bulk crystal damage is required. In this work, for the first time we have evaluated the interface damage of crystals bonded by the SAB method: single crystal and poly-crystalline Nd:YAG and compared it to the surface and bulk threshold values.