Laser-induced damage thresholds and mechanism of silica glass induced by ultra-short soft x-ray laser pulse irradiation

Opt Lett. 2020 Apr 15;45(8):2435-2438. doi: 10.1364/OL.389288.

Abstract

Laser-induced damage thresholds (LIDTs) of silica glasses obtained by the femtosecond soft x-ray free-electron laser (SXFEL, 13.5 nm, 70 fs) and the picosecond soft x-ray laser (SXRL, 13.9 nm, 7 ps) are evaluated. The volume of the hydroxyl group in the silica glasses influenced its LIDTs. The LIDTs obtained in this research by the femtosecond SXFEL and the picosecond SXRL were nearly identical, but were different from that by the nanosecond soft x-ray pulse. The photoionization processes of silica glass in context of the laser-induced damage mechanism (LIDM) are also discussed. In the ultra-short soft x-ray pulse irradiation regime, the LIDM can be speculated to include the spallation process with a scission of bondings.