The damage of the optical components induced by the stimulated Brillouin scattering

A theory of excitation of ultrasonic waves in the stimulated Brillouin scattering (SBS) process is presented in this paper. By using several reasonable approximations, a numerical calculation of the transient longitudinal SBS shows that large amplitude of acoustic waves can be built up by the nanosecond pulse of high-power laser, which may result in the damage of optical glasses. The maximal density change and the maximal acoustic wave intensity in optical glasses of 5\,cm in thickness are calculated by using different parameters of the high-energy laser, such as the intensity, the pulse width, and the wave length. The damage threshold of the optical glasses is about 80 GW/cm^{2} when using a 1064 nm laser. The dynamic mechanism of SBS is the electrostriction effect of the components coupling with the high-power laser.