Electrical field enhancement and laser damage growth in high-reflective coatings at 1064 nm

The effect of electric field enhancement on damage growth of flat bottom pit and nodule-ejected pit was studied based on the finite difference time domain method and temperature field theory. The electric field enhancement around the edge of damage pits indeed exists and varies from 1.2 to 2.0 times. It is found that damage growth not only depends on the electric field enhancement but also the local absorptive coefficient by temperature field calculation. The results also meet the reported damage growth behavior very well. A conclusion can be drawn that field enhancement and potential defects or new generated defects during former pulses are jointly responsible for the damage growth. In addition, an inference can be drawn from theoretical analysis that the flat bottom pit has been initiated by absorbing defect located at the H-L interfaces, which the peaks of electrical field happen to.