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Spatio-Temporally Resolved Optical Laser-Induced Damage To Study Defect Limited Performance Of Optical Films, Yejia Xu

Optical Science and Engineering ETDs

Laser-induced damage (LID) limits the performance of optical films and surfaces. Despite intensive study for decades following the invention of laser, the study of LID remains timely and attractive, because for nanosecond laser pulses the LID process is controlled by randomly distributed defects of unknown origin.

Traditional damage tests yield little information about the defects present in optical films and surfaces. These methods record a "yes" or "no" damage result after each test and cannot distinguish the different defects present.

This dissertation focuses on the development of a new kind of laser-induced damage test that measures the actual fluence (intensity) …