Assessment of optical purity in bulk transparent materials via spectrometry of filament induced luminescence (Conference Presentation)

Benchmarking optical quality of transparent materials is of vital importance to high power laser optics. Herewith we propose new nondestructive technique suited to quantify atomic impurities, based on spectrometry of laser induced-filament luminescence. Various laser host materials, of different vendors (sapphire, YAG and KGW) were investigated. The intensity and decay times of luminescence indicated significant differences in impurities among samples. To validate the proposed technique, filament induced luminescence results were compared to cathodoluminescence and x-rays luminescence results. Good agreement between sources was found. Finally, the effect of impurities on optical fatigue was evaluated by laser damage testing of the samples.