Research on temperature field of KDP crystal under ion beam cleaning

KH2PO4 (KDP) crystal is a kind of excellent nonlinear optical component used as a laser frequency conversion unit in a high-power laser system. However, KDP crystal has raised a huge challenge in regards to its fabrication for high precision: KDP crystal has special physical and chemical characteristics. Abrasive-free water-dissolution magnetorheological finishing is used in KDP figuring in our lab. But the iron powders of MRF fluid are easily embedded into the soft surface of KDP crystal, which will greatly decrease the laser-induced damage resistance. This paper proposes to utilize ion beam figuring (IBF) technology to figure and clean the surface of a KDP component. Although IBF has many good performances, the thermal effect control is a headachy problem for the KDP process. To solve this problem, we have established its thermal effect models, which are used to calculate a component's surface temperature and thermal gradient in the whole process. By this way, we can understand how to control a temperature map and its gradient in the IBF process. Many experiments have been done to validate and optimize this method. Finally, a KDP component with the size of 200 x 200 x 12 mm is successfully processed by this method. (C) 2016 Optical Society of America