Wide-field probing of silica laser-induced damage precursors by photoluminescence photochemical quenching

Abstract

We describe a wide-field approach to probe transient changes in photoluminescence (PL) of defects on silica surfaces. This technique allows simultaneous capture of spa-tially resolved PL with spontaneous quenching behavior. We attribute the quenching of PL intensity to photochemical reactions of surface defects and/or subsurface fractures with ambient molecules. Such quenching curves can be accurately reproduced by our theoretical model using two quench-able defect populations with different reaction rates. The fitting parameters of our model are spatially correlated to fractures in silica where point defects and mechani-cal stresses are known to be present, potentially indicating regions prone to laser-induced damage growth. We believe that our approach allows rapid spatial resolved identifica-tion of damage prone morphology, providing a new pathway to fast, non-destructive predictions of laser-induced damage growth.& COPY; 2023 Optica Publishing Group