Patent ID: 9498846
Filing Date: 2016-11-22
CPC Classification: B23K,H01S,Y10T

Claim Text:
1. A system for inhibiting contamination enhanced laser induced damage caused by a laser beam, the system comprising: a housing configured to maintain a sealed gas environment or vacuum, having a gas phase contaminant therein, and having a laser source therein, wherein the laser source generates the laser beam; an optical component, disposed within the housing, that is a part of the laser source or through which the laser beam travels, wherein the optical component is transmissive and controls a path of the laser beam; a water or alcohol container operatively coupled to the housing; a delivery system configured to introduce water or alcohol in a gas phase into the housing from the container; a sensor configured to sense an environmental characteristic within the housing and to generate an output based on the sensed environmental characteristic; and a controller, disposed within the housing, configured to receive the output of the sensor and based on the output of the sensor to cause the delivery system to introduce gas phase water or alcohol into the housing from the container in an amount sufficient to generate and maintain a layer of the water or alcohol adsorbed to the optical component from the gas phase and covering a surface of the optical component, the layer leaving minimal area on the surface of the optical component via which the contaminant adsorbs or absorbs to the surface and displacing the contaminant from the surface of the optical component so as to inhibit damage to the optical component resulting from contact between the contaminant, the optical component, and the laser beam.