Laser Induced Damage Threshold Measurements at the Microscopic Level

ABSTRACTWe have (tudied the laser damage threshold to silver films (500Å - 1000Å) grown on single crystal silicon <100>, in a newly developed laser damage UHV system at pressures of 10−1 torr. A 1.06μm Nd:Glass laser is used to damage the mirror surfaces in 1-on-1 pulse studies. In-situ damage characterization includes Auger, reflectivity of the primary beam, diffuse scattering of a helium-neon laser, and mass spectrometry detection of desorbed surface species. External characterization includes optical microscopy and SEM. All in-situ damage probes are well correlated and baseline damage occurs at fluences near 3.4 MW/cm2. Time-of-flight to the mass spectrometer shows ejected particles with energies in the 5 to 10 eV range indicating a plasma damage mechanism. Prior to typical thermally induced damage the external microscopy shows well defined precursor morphology changes which appear as feather-like microstructure at the submicron level.