The goal of this project is to develop a tool (hard- and software) to reliably and non- destructively predict the laser-induced damage threshold of optical elements. This tool will mainly be applied to optical elements for high-power lasers as they are operated by the Department of Energy but are also increasingly used in manufacturing, defense, and medicine (e.g. as proton- or ion-sources for cancer therapy). The proposed project will combine a number of non-destructive optical measurements that are known to potentially identify defects that seed laser-induced damage. These measurements will then be correlated to extract a merit function for the damage resistance of the optical element under test, depending on the parameters of the incident laser pulse like pulse duration, wavelength, and repetition rate. In Phase I, we will scan optical elements with different optical probes and test the validity of the utilized methods for the prediction of optical damage by comparing the prediction to actual damage tests. At the end of Phase I we envision a test protocol and an optical-bench setup to put this protocol into practice. In Phase II, we will work towards the commercialization of this approach, realizing or exceeding the specifications requested in the solicitation, and establishing a test site that can offer this measurement and characterization procedure as a service to customers.
