Optical strength of the material under conditions of high-power pulsed radiation

The stochastic nature of the laser-induced destruction of transparent materials under the action of high-power pulsed laser radiation was simulated using the Weibull statistical distribution in order to predict the optical strength dynamics of the irradiated surface. Theoretical and experimental studies of the optical strength of glass composites were conducted, taking into account the stochastic properties of the breakdown of nano-scale coatings under the action of a single high-power pulsed laser radiation. Coatings were obtained by sol-gel method. As a radiation source, we used a solid-state laser on a yttrium-aluminum garnet doped with neodymium ions (YAG-Nd laser) which generated laser pulses at wavelength of 1.064 mu m with duration of 30 ns with energy of up to 0.15 J and with duration of 300 mu s with energy of 1.2 J The authors proposed an algorithm for determining the optical strength of the irradiated material by the breakdown stress of the material. It is proposed to determine the breakdown stress by comparing the experimental and simulated dependences of stress, temperature, and reliability of the surface of the irradiated material. Based on the proposed measurement technique, experimental studies were conducted and an algorithm was developed for determining the optical strength of coatings.