Study of CO2 laser smoothing of surface roughness in fused silica

Nan Shen; Manyalibo J. Matthews; James E. Fair; Jerald A. Britten; Hoang T. Nguyen; Juliet D. Cooke; Selim Elhadj; William D. Henshaw; Gabe M. Guss; Isaac L. Bass; Steven T. Yang

doi:10.1117/12.836907

31 December 2009 Study of CO₂ laser smoothing of surface roughness in fused silica

Nan Shen, Manyalibo J. Matthews, James E. Fair, Jerald A. Britten, Hoang T. Nguyen, Juliet D. Cooke, Selim Elhadj, William D. Henshaw, Gabe M. Guss, Isaac L. Bass, Steven T. Yang

Author Affiliations +

Proceedings Volume 7504, Laser-Induced Damage in Optical Materials: 2009; 750411 (2009) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.836907
Event: Laser Damage Symposium XLI: Annual Symposium on Optical Materials for High Power Lasers, 2009, Boulder, Colorado, United States

Abstract

Small micrometer-sized roughness on optical surfaces, caused by laser damage and/or redeposition of laser ablated material, can cause local electric field intensification which may lead to damage initiation both on the optics and/or downstream. We examined the smoothing of etched periodic surface structures on SiO₂ substrate with 10.6μm CO₂ laser using atomic force microscopy. The characteristic surface tension driven mass flow of the glass under different laser parameters were simulated using computational fluid dynamics and correlated with experimental results. We found that during CO₂ laser polishing the estimate viscosity of the silica glass appears to be higher than typical literature values measured at a temperature similar to the laser heating conditions. This discrepancy can be explained by the observation that at high temperature, a significant portion of the hydroxyl content in the layer of heated silica glass can diffuse out resulting in a much stiffer glass.

Citation Download Citation

Nan Shen, Manyalibo J. Matthews, James E. Fair, Jerald A. Britten, Hoang T. Nguyen, Juliet D. Cooke, Selim Elhadj, William D. Henshaw, Gabe M. Guss, Isaac L. Bass, and Steven T. Yang "Study of CO₂ laser smoothing of surface roughness in fused silica", Proc. SPIE 7504, Laser-Induced Damage in Optical Materials: 2009, 750411 (31 December 2009); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.836907

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