Speaker
Susumu Kato
(National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology)
Description
High-power continuous-wave (CW) lasers are used in many industries, including laser processing, fiber-optic communication, and laser display. Laser-induced breakdown damage in optical materials limits the laser power. We propose a nonlinear absorption mechanism in optical crystals under CW laser irradiation. The absorption mechanism works for catastrophic CW laser breakdown in an optical crystal such as LiNbO3 or LiTaO3, in which the bandgap energy is less than two times the photon energy and which has a long-lived excited state like a polaron.
