Improvement of surface laser damage resistance in CsLiB6O10 crystal for high-power UV lasers

Effect of ion beam etching on surface damage resistance was investigated in CsLiB6O10(CLBO) crystal. In high-power UV operation, an as-polished CLBO surface was damaged due to absorption of the polishing compound embedded inside the crystal surface. In the as-polished surface of CLBO, polishing compound ZrO2 (absorption edge is about 300 nm) was detected to a depth of 60 nm. We have removed polishing compound with ion beam etching without degrading the surface quality. The effects of polishing compound removal on surface damage were characterized for the surface laser-induced damage threshold (LIDT) at 355 nm (pulse width 0.85 ns) as a function of etching depth and surface lifetime for the generation of fourth-harmonic of ND:YAG laser (266 nm, 20 ns, 4 kHz). We found an improvement of the surface damage resistance. LIDT of etched surface increased up to 15 J/cm2 as compared with that of the as-polished surface of 11 J/cm2. Etched CLBO surface also exhibits an improvement lifetime 4 times longer than that of as-polished surface.