Higher certainty of the laser-induced damage threshold test with a redistributing data treatment

As a consequence of its statistical nature, the measurement of the laser-induced damage threshold holds always risks to over- or underestimate the real threshold value. As one of the established measurement procedures, the results of S-on-1 (and 1-on-1) tests outlined in the corresponding ISO standard 21 254 depend on the amount of data points and their distribution over the fluence scale. With the limited space on a test sample as well as the requirements on test site separation and beam sizes, the amount of data from one test is restricted. This paper reports on a way to treat damage test data in order to reduce the statistical error and therefore measurement uncertainty. Three simple assumptions allow for the assignment of one data point to multiple data bins and therefore virtually increase the available data base.