Influence of cleaning process on the laser-induced damage threshold of substrates

The cleaning process of optical substrates plays an important role during the manufacture of high-power laser coatings. Two kinds of substrates, fused silica and BK7 glass, and two cleaning processes, called process 1 and process 2 having different surfactant solutions and different ultrasonic cleaning parameters, are adopted to compare the influence of the ultrasonic cleaning technique on the substrates. The evaluation standards of the cleaning results include contaminant-removal efficiency, weak absorption, and laser-induced damage threshold of the substrates. For both fused silica and BK7, process 2 is more efficient than process 1. Because acid and alkaline solutions can increase the roughness of BK7, process 2 is unsuitable for BK7 glass cleaning. The parameters of the cleaning protocol should be changed depending on the material of the optical components and the type of contamination. (C) 2011 Optical Society of America