The dependence of the pulsed 10.6-µm laser damage threshold on the manner in which a sample is irradiated

The threshold for pulsed 10.6 μm laser-induced surface and bulk damage in transparent materials has been shown to depend on the manner in which the samples are irradiated. When a site is irradiated several times, starting at a very low intensity and increasing the flux a few percent on successive shots until damage occurs, the threshold is often higher than if each site were irradiated only once. In addition, it has been shown that the damage threshold also depends on the sample tested and so the use of relative damage-threshold measurements to identify the damage mechanism should be reexamined.