Mf. Koldunov et al., THERMOELASTIC AND ABLATION MECHANISMS OF LASER DAMAGE TO THE SURFACESOF TRANSPARENT SOLIDS, Quantum electronics, 28(3), 1998, pp. 269-273
An investigation is reported of the relationships governing laser dama
ge to the surfaces of transparent dielectrics, initiated by absorbing
inclusions, under repeated irradiation conditions. It is shown that ul
trashort pulses produce damage by the ablation mechanism, whereas 'lon
g' laser pulses cause damage by the thermoelastic mechanism. The relat
ionships established for the change in the damage mechanism with chang
e in the pulse duration apply also to intrinsic (collisional and multi
photon ionisation) damage mechanisms.