The role of defects in laser-induced modifications of silica coatings and fused silica using picosecond pulses at 1053 nm: I. Damage morphology.

Laser-induced damage with ps pulse widths straddles the transition from intrinsic, multi-photon ionization and avalanche ionization-based ablation with fs pulses to defect-dominated, thermal-based damage with ns pulses. We investigated the morphology of damage for fused silica and silica coatings between 1 ps and 60 ps at 1053 nm. Using calibrated laser-induced damage experiments, in situ imaging, and high-resolution optical microscopy, atomic force microscopy, and scanning electron microscopy, we show that defects play an important role in laser-induced damage down to 1 ps. Three types of damage are observed: ablation craters, ultra-high density pits, and smooth, circular depressions with central pits. For 10 ps and longer, the smooth, circular depressions limit the damage performance of fused silica and silica coatings. The observed high-density pits and material removal down to 3 ps indicate that variations in surface properties limit the laser-induced damage onset to a greater extent than expected below 60 ps. Below 3 ps, damage craters are smoother although there is still evidence as seen by AFM of inhomogeneous laser-induced damage response very near the damage onset. These results show that modeling the damage onset only as a function of pulse width does not capture the convoluted processes leading to laser induced damage with ps pulses. It is necessary to account for the effects of defects on the processes leading to laser-induced damage. The effects of isolated defects or inhomogeneities are most pronounced above 3 ps but are still discernible and possibly important down to the shortest pulse width investigated here.