Investigation of surface damage precursor evolutions and laser-induced damage threshold improvement mechanism during Ion beam etching of fused silica.

Surface damage precursor evolution has great influence on laser-induced damage threshold improvement of fused silica surface during Ion beam etching. In this work, a series of ion sputtering experiment are carried out to obtain the evolutions of damage precursors (dot-form microstructures, Polishing-Induced Contamination, Hertz scratches, and roughness). Based on ion sputtering theory, surface damage precursor evolutions are analyzed. The results show that the dot-form microstructures will appear during ion beam etching. But as the ion beam etching depth goes up, the dot-form microstructures can be mitigated. And ion-beam etching can broaden and passivate the Hertz scratches without increasing roughness value. A super-smooth surface (0.238nm RMS) can be obtained finally. The relative content of Fe and Ce impurities both significantly reduce after ion beam etching. The laser-induced damage threshold of fused silica is improved by 34% after ion beam etching for 800nm. Research results can be a reference on using ion beam etching process technology to improve laser-induced damage threshold of fused silica optics.