Summary of Meeting: SPIE Laser Damage Symposium 47th Annual Symposium on Optical Materials for High Power Laser 27-30 September 2015

摘要

These proceedings contain the papers presented as oral and poster presentations at the 47th SPIE Laser Damage Symposium (aka Annual Symposium on Optical Materials for High-Power Lasers). The conference was held at the National Institute of Standards and Technology facility in Boulder, Colorado on 27-30 September 2015. The symposium was divided into oral and poster sessions following four major topics: thin films; surfaces, mirrors and contamination; fundamental mechanisms; materials and measurements. A mini-symposium was held this year on laser damage to multilayer coatings for ultrafast lasers. A tutorial on defect-induced damage in nano- and femto-second regime was held as a special pre-symposium event on Sunday evening, September 27. The conference was opened by Dr. Vitaly Gruzdev with a symposium welcome. Dr. Gregory J. Exarhos of Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (USA), Dr. Vitaly Gruzdev of the University of Missouri, Columbia (USA), Dr. Joseph A. Menapace of the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (USA), Dr. Detlev Ristau of the Laser Zentrum Hannover e.V. (Germany), Dr. M. J. Soileau, of the University of Central Florida (USA) co-chaired the symposium. The founding organizers of the symposium are Dr. Arthur H. Guenther and Dr. Alexander J. Glass. 84 s were submitted to the symposium, of which 73 were presented at 11 oral sessions and 4 poster sessions. No parallel sessions were held allowing the opportunity to discuss common research interests with all the presenters. With 122 attendees 75 of which were authors and meeting co-chairs, the meeting offered an outstanding opportunity to make many new acquaintances. Although held annually in the US, Laser Damage symposium continues to be a true international conference with 55% of the presentations and 39% of attendees coming from Europe, Asia, and Africa. As usual, the National Institute of Standards and Technology in Boulder, Colorado, offered a setting conductive to effective communications and interchanges between Symposium participants. The 48th Annual Symposium of this series will be held in Boulder, Colorado, 25-28 September 2016. A continuous effort will be made to ensure a close liaison between the high-energy, high-peak-power, and high-average-power laser communities, as well as to include damage issues related to various research efforts and commercial laser applications. A mini-symposium will be focused on overview of large-scale laser facility projects. Invited talks are also anticipated for the four major topical areas and the mini-symposium. Following multiple feedbacks from symposium participants, the 2016 Symposium is relocated from NIST to Boulder Millennium Harvest House Hotel. The principal topics to be considered as contributed papers in 2016 do not differ drastically from those enumerated above. We expect to hear more about the impacts of contamination on the laser resistance of optical components and the influence of defects since both those topics continue to generate significant interest. High-energy laser windows, crystals, and transparent ceramics continue to place limitations on laser systems so remain an active area of research and spirited debate. Refinement of the mitigation strategy consisting of damage initiation followed by arresting damage growth through post-processing techniques while not creating downstream damage is also expected to be a continued focus as a large number of laser-resistant UV optics are manufactured for laser-lithography applications. Short pulse (nanosecond and picosecond) laser optics and damage phenomena remain an active area of research. Recent progress in the fields of ultrashort-pulse (femtosecond) lasers and ultrafast laser-material interactions is believed to be the most growing area of the future symposium. We also expect to hear more about new measurement techniques to improve our understanding of the different damage mechanisms or to improve the manufacturing of optical materials and thin films for optical components of greater laser damage resistance. Thin films for a broad range of laser wavelengths and pulse durations will continue to stay one of hot topics of the symposium. Also, new developments in the field of meta-materials and related laser-damage issues will attract growing attention due to their intensive development and potential use in high-power lasers. Fundamental aspects of laser-induced damage including multiphoton and avalanche ionization, scaling of damage threshold with laser and material parameters continuously attract a lot of attention. More presentations on contamination control are expected in 2016 due to the recent progress of LIGO project and the reported detection of gravitation waves. As was initially established in 1992, several distinguished invited speakers will deliver keynote presentations of a tutorial or review nature, in addition, other contributors will cover late-breaking developments. Another tutorial on advanced materials for high-power lasers is expected to be delivered as a pre-symposium event on Sunday evening. The purpose of this series of symposia is to provide an international platform for information exchange about optical materials for high-power / high-energy lasers and a broad range of topics related to laser-induced damage in those materials. The editors welcome comments and criticism from all interested readers relevant to this purpose.