Gray-track damage in potassium titanyl phosphate under a picosecond regime at 532 nm

We report studies of gray-track damage formation in flux-grown potassium titanyl phosphate exposed to 532 nm, picosecond pulses. We investigate the time evolution of damage formation and the evolution of gray-track susceptibility as a function of laser intensity. We demonstrate that the energy loss in the crystal is for the most part due to the formation of the centers of absorption. For 26 ps pulses, the intensity damage threshold was found to be much higher than for nanosecond pulses. Evidence is found that the mechanism of gray-track formation is nonlinear as a function of intensity and as a function of pulse duration. (C) 2000 American Institute of Physics. [S0003-6951(00)02934-X].