Materials Science and Engineering Commons^™

All Solid-State Mid-Ir Laser Development, Nonlinear Absorption Investigation And Laser-Induced Damage Study, Torrey J. Wagner

Theses and Dissertations

In this research, nonlinear optical absorption coefficients and laser-induced damage thresholds are measured in Ge and GaSb, which are materials that are used in IR detectors. Using a simultaneous fitting technique to extract nonlinear absorption coefficients from data at two pulse widths, two-photon and free-carrier absorption coefficients are measured in Ge and GaSb at 2.05 and 2.5 μm for the first time. At these wavelengths, nonlinear absorption is the primary damage mechanism, and damage thresholds at picosecond and nanosecond pulse widths were measured and agreed well with modeled thresholds using experimentally measured parameters. The damage threshold for a single-layer Al …