Laser-damage risk assessment with extreme-event statistics.

Area of Science:

• Materials Science
• Optics
• Laser Physics

Background:

• Assessing laser-induced damage to optical components is critical for high-power laser systems.
• Current testing methods are destructive, damaging the components they evaluate.
• Developing non-damaging assessment techniques is essential for engineering complex laser architectures.

Purpose of the Study:

• To present a theoretical framework for quantifying laser-induced damage risk without component destruction.
• To identify physical conditions enabling non-damaging risk assessment.
• To enable accurate prediction of multipulse laser damage probability.

Main Methods:

• Developed a theoretical framework for non-damaging laser damage risk assessment.
• Expressed multipulse laser damage probability in closed form as a function of laser fluence and signal-to-noise ratio.
• Utilized prior data on laser driver statistics and material modification properties.

Main Results:

• Quantified laser damage risk in a non-damaging way under specific physical settings.
• Provided closed-form solutions for multipulse laser damage probability.
• Demonstrated accurate prediction of laser damage across diverse experimental conditions and samples, including multilayer dielectric coatings.

Conclusions:

• The developed framework enables accurate, non-damaging assessment of laser-induced damage risk.
• The approach provides physically insightful, closed-form solutions for multipulse laser-matter interactions.
• This methodology is valuable for designing optical components, particularly for laser fusion technologies.