LASER-INDUCED DAMAGE IN OPTICAL MATERIALS: 2014

These proceedings contain the papers presented as oral and poster presentations at the 46th Annual Symposium on Optical Materials for High-Power Lasers. The conference was held at the National Institute of Standards and Technology facility in Boulder, Colorado on 14-17 September 2014. The symposium was divided into the traditional sessions devoted to the following major topics: thin films; surfaces, mirrors and contamination; fundamental mechanisms; materials and measurements. A mini-symposium was held this year on applications related to laser damage. The starting event of the symposium was a tutorial on fundamentals of growth and characterization of amorphous thin films held as a special pre-symposium event on Sunday evening, September 13. The conference was opened by Dr. Detlev Ristau with a symposium welcome. Dr. Gregory J. Exarhos of Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (USA), Dr. Vitaly Gruzdev of the University of Missouri, Columbia (USA), Dr. Joseph A. Menapace of the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (USA), Dr. Detlev Ristau of the Laser Zentrum Hannover e.V. (Germany), Dr. M. J. Soileau, of the University of Central Florida (USA) co-chaired the symposium. The founding organizers of the symposium are Dr. Arthur H. Guenther and Dr. Alexander J. Glass. 93 abstracts were submitted to the symposium, of which 81 was presented at 12 oral sessions and 4 poster sessions. No parallel sessions were held allowing the opportunity to discuss common research interests with all the presenters. With 126 participants attending, the meeting offered an outstanding opportunity to make many new acquaintances. Although held annually in the US, Laser Damage symposium continues to be a true international conference with more than 60% of the presentations coming from Europe and Asia. As usual, the National Institute of Standards and Technology in Boulder, Colorado, offered a setting conductive to effective communication and interchange between individuals working in closely related and complementary fields. We look forward to future opportunities to come together again in this setting. The 47th Annual Symposium of this series will be held in Boulder, Colorado, 27-30 September 2015. A continuous effort will be made to ensure a close liaison between the high-energy, high-peak-power, and high-average-power laser communities, as well as to include damage issues related to various research efforts and commercial laser applications. A mini-symposium focused on multilayer dielectric mirrors for ultrafast lasers is anticipated. Invited talks are also anticipated to open the four major topical areas and the mini-symposium. Following much feedback from symposium participants, relocation of the symposium beginning in 2016 is under active discussion. Several cities in Europe, US, and Asia and re-location regimes (annual or bi-annual) are under consideration now. The principal topics to be considered as contributed papers in 2015 do not differ drastically from those enumerated above. We expect to hear more about the impact of contamination on the laser resistance of optical components and the influence of defects since both those topics continue to generate significant interest. High-energy laser windows, crystals, and transparent ceramics continue to place limitations on laser systems so remain an active area of research and spirited debate. Refinement of the mitigation strategy consisting of damage initiation followed by arresting damage growth through post-processing techniques while not creating downstream damage is also expected to be a continued focus as a large number of laser-resistant UV optics are manufactured for laser-lithography applications. Short pulse (nanosecond and picosecond) laser optics and damage phenomena remain an active area of research. Recent progress in the fields of ultrashort-pulse (femtosecond) lasers and ultrafast laser-material interactions is believed to be one of the fastest growing area of the future symposium. We also expect to hear more about new measurement techniques to improve our