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Relevance of Carbon Dioxide Laser to Remove Scratches on Large Fused Silica Polished Optics
Author(s) -
Cormont Philippe,
Bourgeade Antoine,
Cavaro Sandy,
Donval Thierry,
Doualle Thomas,
Gaborit Gael,
Gallais Laurent,
Lamaignère Laurent,
Rullier JeanLuc
Publication year - 2015
Publication title -
advanced engineering materials
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.938
H-Index - 114
eISSN - 1527-2648
pISSN - 1438-1656
DOI - 10.1002/adem.201400383
Subject(s) - polishing , materials science , scratch , laser , fluence , optics , carbon dioxide laser , fabrication , optoelectronics , composite material , medicine , physics , alternative medicine , pathology , laser surgery
Scratches at the surface of fused silica optics can be detrimental for the performance of optical systems. A carbon dioxide (CO 2 ) laser is an interesting tool to remove those scratches because it can melt efficiently the silica in a rapid and localized way, without generating debris. In this article, we propose a new process for optical fabrication, which uses a CO 2 laser to remove scratches between polishing and finishing steps. This is a linear process with no iterative polishing operations for scratch removal. This process is applied on an optic representative of laser megajoule facility production. Indeed, we succeed in removing a 10 μm deep scratch and we demonstrate that this laser operation increases the laser damage threshold by a factor of three in fluence.