Investigation of the pyramid–prism boundary of a rapidly grown KDP crystal

To investigate the pyramid–prism (PY–PR) boundary of a rapidly grown KDP crystal, the exact position of the PY–PR boundary of an X-cut rapidly grown KDP sample is determined by measuring the refractive-index non-uniformity. The peak-valley value of Δ(ne–no) near the PY–PR boundary is approximately 3 × 10−6, and the width of the distortion area near the PY–PR boundary is approximately 0.6 mm. The FWHM values of the high-resolution X-ray diffraction peaks in the pyramidal sector, the prismatic sector, and the region containing the PY–PR boundary are all 0.008°, indicating the fine crystalline quality of the crystal. Moreover, the existence of the PY–PR boundary does not affect the fine crystalline quality. From the pyramidal sector to the prismatic sector, the transmittance in the ultraviolet region decreases gradually when crossing the PY–PR boundary. The fluences corresponding to 50% laser-induced damage (LID) probability are 11.9, 12.8, and 17.0 J cm−2 (3 ns, 355 nm) for the PY–PR boundary, the pyramidal sector, and the prismatic sector, respectively. By identifying different types of defects in each sector, it is found that the PY–PR boundary exhibited the worst LID performance. This is because there are more bulk microdefects in the PY–PR boundary. These defects are more likely to be inclusions induced by the instability of the steps near the PY–PR boundary.