On the damage behavior of dielectric films when illuminated with multiple femtosecond laser pulses

The physical effects reducing the damage threshold of dielectric films when exposed to multiple femtosecond pulses are investigated. The measured temperature increase of a Ta2O5 film scales exponentially with the pulse fluence. A polarized luminescence signal is observed that depends quadratically on the pulse fluence and is attributed to two-photon excitation of self-trapped excitons that form after band-to-band excitation. The damage fluence decreases with increasing pulse number, but is independent of the repetition rate from 1 Hz to 1 kHz at a constant pulse number. The repetition rate dependence of the breakdown threshold is also measured for TiO2, HfO2, Al2O3, and SiO2 films. A theoretical model is presented that explains these findings.

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