Considerable attention has been paid over the years to the problem of growing high purity KDP and KD*P to meet threshold requirements on succeeding generations of inertial confinement fusion lasers at LLNL. While damage thresholds for these materials have increased over time, the current National Ignition Facility (NIF) maximum fluence requirement (redline) for KD*P frequency triplers of 14.3 J/cm{sup 2} at 351 nm, 3 ns has not been reached without laser (pre)conditioning. It is reasonable to assume that, despite the rapid increase in damage thresholds for rapidly grown crystals, -a program of large scale conditioning of the 192 NIF triplers will be required. Small area ramp (R/1) tests on single sites indicate that KDP damage thresholds can be raised on average up to 1.5X the unconditioned values. Unpublished LLNL 3{omega} raster conditioning studies on KDP, however, have not conclusively shown that off-line conditioning is feasible for KD*P. Consequently, investigating the feasibility of on-line conditioning of NIF triplers at 3{omega} has become a high priority for the KDP damage group at LLNL. To investigate the feasibility of on-line conditioning we performed a series of experiments using the Optical Sciences Laser (OSL) on numerous samples of conventional and rapid growth KDP and …

Interest in producing high-damage-threshold KH{sub 2}PO{sub 4} (KDP) and (D{sub x}H{sub 1-x}){sub 2}PO{sub 4} (DKDP) for frequency conversion and optical switching applications is driven by the requirements of the National Ignition Facility (NIF) at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL). At present only the best crystals meet the NIF system requirements at the third harmonic (351 nm) and only after a laser conditioning process. Neither the mechanism for damage in bulk KDP nor the mechanism for conditioning is understood. As part of a development effort to increase the damage thresholds of KDP and DKDP, we have been developing a diagnostic tool that will find these locations, we will use other measurement techniques to determine how these locations differ from the surrounding material and why they cause damage. This will allow crystal growers to focus their efforts during the growth process in improving damage thresholds.

Development of high damage threshold, 50 cm, rapidly grown KF*P frequency triplers for operation of the National Ignition Facility (NIF) in the 14 J/cm2, 351 nm, 3 ns regime requires a thorough understanding of how the crystal growth parameters and technologies affect laser induced damage. Of particular importance is determining the effect of ionic impurities (e.g. Cr3+, Fe3+, Al3+) which may be introduced in widely varying concentrations via starting salts. In addition, organic particulates can contaminate the solution as leachants from growth platforms or via mechanical ablation. Mechanical stresses in the crystals may also play a strong role in the laser-induced damage distribution (LIDD), particularly in the cases of large boules where hydrodynamic forces in the growth tank may be quite high. WE have developed a dedicated, automated damage test system with diagnostic capabilities specifically designed for measured time resolved bulk damage onset and evolution. The data obtained make it possible to construct characteristic damage threshold distributions for each sample. Test results obtained for a variety of KDP samples grown from high purity starting salts and individually doped with Lucite and Teflon, iron, chromium, and aluminium show that the LIDD drops with increasing contamination content. The results also show that …

Laser-induced damage on optical surfaces is often associated with absorbing contaminants introduced by the polishing process. This is particularly the case for UV optics. Here secondary ion mass spectroscopy (SIMS) was used to measure depth profiles of finished process contamination on fused silica surfaces. Contaminants detected include the major polishing compound components (Ce or Zr from CeO2 or ZrO2), Al presently largely because of the use of Al2O3 in the final cleaning process (Fe, Cu,Cr) incorporated during the polishing step or earlier grinding steps. Depth profile data typically showed an exponential decay of contaminant concentration to a depth of 100-200 nm. This depth is consistent with a polishing redeposition layers formed during the chemo-mechanical polishing of fused silica. Peak contaminant levels are typically in the 10-100 ppm range, except for Al with exceeds 1000 ppm. A strong correlation has been shown between the presence of a gray haze damage morphology and the use of CeO2 polishing compound. No strong correlation was found however between high levels of Ce, or any other contaminant and the low damage threshold was observed. In fact one of the strongest indications of a correlation is between increased damage thresholds and increased Zr contamination. This suggests …