Er:CaF2 crystals are crucial gain media for producing 3 μm mid-infrared (MIR) lasers pumped by 976 nm continuous-wave (CW) lasers owing to their low phonon energy and high conversion efficiency. This study investigated the damage characteristics and mechanism of Er:CaF2 crystals irradiated with a 976 nm CW laser. The laser-induced damage threshold of Er:CaF2 crystals with different Er3+ doping levels was tested; the damage morphology consists of a series of regular 70° cracks related to the angle of the crystal slip system on the surface. A finite-element model was used to calculate the temperature and stress fields of the crystals. The results indicated that the damage can be attributed to surface tensile stresses caused by the temperature gradient, and crystals with higher doping concentrations were more susceptible to damage owing to stronger light absorption. These findings provide valuable insights into the development of high-power MIR lasers.

The damage characteristics of fused silica were investigated under low-temporal coherence light (LTCL). It was found that the laser-induced damage threshold (LIDT) of fused silica for the LTCL was lower than that of the single longitudinal mode pulse laser, and for the LTCLs, the LIDTs decrease with the increasing of laser bandwidth, which is not consistent with the temporal spike intensity. This is due to the nonlinear self-focusing effect and multi-pulse accumulation effect. The specific reasons were analyzed based on theoretical simulation and experimental study. This research work is helpful and of great significance for the construction of high-power LTCL devices.

Multilayer dielectric gratings (MLDGs) are crucial for pulse compression in picosecond–petawatt laser systems. Bulged nodular defects, embedded in coating stacks during multilayer deposition, influence the lithographic process and performance of the final MLDG products. In this study, the integration of nanosecond laser conditioning (NLC) into different manufacturing stages of MLDGs was proposed for the first time on multilayer dielectric films (MLDFs) and final grating products to improve laser-induced damage performance. The results suggest that the remaining nodular ejection pits introduced by the two protocols exhibit a high nanosecond laser damage resistance, which remains stable when the irradiated laser fluence is more than twice the nanosecond-laser-induced damage threshold (nanosecond-LIDT) of the unconditioned MLDGs. Furthermore, the picosecond-LIDT of the nodular ejection pit conditioned on the MLDFs was approximately 40% higher than that of the nodular defects, and the loss of the grating structure surrounding the nodular defects was avoided. Therefore, NLC is an effective strategy for improving the laser damage resistance of MLDGs.

Multilayer dielectric gratings typically remove multiple-grating pillars after picosecond laser irradiation; however, the dynamic formation process of the removal is still unclear. In this study, the damage morphologies of multilayer dielectric gratings induced by an 8.6-ps laser pulse were closely examined. The damage included the removal of a single grating pillar and consecutive adjacent grating pillars and did not involve the destruction of the internal high-reflection mirror structure. Comparative analysis of the two damage morphological characteristics indicated the removal of adjacent pillars was related to an impact process caused by the eruption of localized materials from the left-hand pillar, exerting impact pressure on its adjacent pillars and eventually resulting in multiple pillar removal. A finite-element strain model was used to calculate the stress distribution of the grating after impact. According to the electric field distribution, the eruptive pressure of the dielectric materials after ionization was also simulated. The results suggest that the eruptive pressure resulted in a stress concentration at the root of the adjacent pillar that was sufficient to cause damage, corresponding to the experimental removal of the adjacent pillar from the root. This study provides further understanding of the laser-induced damage behavior of grating pillars and some insights into reducing the undesirable damage process for practical applications.

In this study, a high-energy, temporally shaped picosecond ultraviolet (UV) laser running at 100 Hz is demonstrated, with its pulses boosted to 120 mJ by cascaded regenerative and double-pass amplifiers, resulting in a gain of more than 108. With precise manipulation and optimization, the amplified laser pulses were flat-top in the temporal and spatial domains to maintain high filling factors, which significantly improved the conversion efficiency of the subsequent third harmonic generation (THG). Finally, 91 mJ, 470 ps pulses were obtained at 355 nm, corresponding to a conversion efficiency as high as 76%, which, as far as we are aware of, is the highest THG efficiency for a high-repetition-rate picosecond laser. In addition, the energy stability of the UV laser is better than 1.07% (root mean square), which makes this laser an attractive source for a variety of fields including laser conditioning and micro-fabrication.

To reduce the seed length while maintaining the advantages of the cuboid KDP-type crystal, a long-seed KDP crystal with size $471~\text{mm}\times 480~\text{mm}\times 400~\text{mm}$ is rapidly grown. With almost the same high cutting efficiency to obtain third harmonic generation oriented samples, this long-seed KDP-type crystal can be grown with a shorter seed than that of the cuboid KDP-type crystal. The full width at half maximum of the high-resolution X-ray diffraction of the (200) crystalline face is 28.8 arc seconds, indicating that the long-seed KDP crystal has good crystalline quality. In the wavelength range of 377–1022 nm, the transmittance of the long-seed KDP crystal is higher than 90%. The fluence for the 50% probability of laser-induced damage (LID) is $18.5~\text{J}/\text{cm}^{2}$ (3 ns, 355 nm). Several test points survive when the laser fluence exceeds $30~\text{J}/\text{cm}^{2}$ (3 ns, 355 nm), indicating the good LID performance of the long-seed KDP crystal. At present, the growth of a long-seed DKDP crystal is under way.

The nonlinear absorption (NLA) properties of potassium dideuterium phosphate crystals at 515 nm under different excitation laser intensities are investigated with the Z-scan technique. Two critical intensities are highlighted: the critical intensity for exciting the NLA and the critical intensity of the multiphoton absorption mechanism transition. Experimental results indicate the existence of defect states located in the band gap, which can be manipulated by varying laser intensity. A model based on the change of multiphoton absorption mechanism induced by the transformation of defect species is proposed to interpret the experiments. Modeling results are in good agreement with the experiment data.

Rapid growth processing of KDP crystals was improved by employing continuous filtration to eliminate bulk defects. The performances of the KDP crystals, including scattering defects, laser damage resistance and transmittance, were measured and analyzed. Compared with rapid-grown KDP without continuous filtration, the transmittance in the near-infrared was increased by at least 2%, almost all of ‘micron size’ defects were eliminated and ‘sub-micron size’ defects were decreased by approximately 90%. Laser damage testing revealed that the laser-induced damage thresholds (LIDTs), as well as the consistency of the LIDTs from sample to sample, were improved greatly. Moreover, it identified that ‘micron size’ defects were the precursors which initiated laser damage at relative lower laser fluence (4–6 J cm−2), and there was a lower correlation between smaller size scattering defects and laser damage initiation. The improved consistency in the LIDTs, attributed to elimination of ‘micron size’ defects, and LIDT enhancement originated from the decreased absorption of the KDP crystals.