Polishing-induced contamination of fused silica optics and laser induced damage density at 351 nm.

In this paper we study the effect of contamination induced by fabrication process on laser damage density of fused silica polished parts at 351 nm in nanosecond regime. We show, owing to recent developments of our raster scan metrology, that a good correlation exists between damage density and concentration of certain contaminants for the considered parts.