Anisotropy of Laser-Induced Bulk Damage of Single Crystals

Abstract

The regularities of laser-induced damage of anisotropic materials, such as LiNbO3 and KDP dielectric single crystals, are experimentally studied. It is revealed that the shape of laser-induced damage in the dielectric crystals depends on the elastic symmetry of crystal and the propagation direction of the laser beam. When the beam propagates along the optic axis of crystals, the figures of the laser damage are six-path stars for LiNbO3 and four-path ones for KDP crystals. For the direction parallel to X and Y axes in KDP crystal, the damage has initially cross-like configuration, with further splitting of Z-oriented crack into two cracks in the process of damage evolution, leading to transformation of orthogonal-type damage to a hexagonal-type one.