Abstract: Local CO₂ laser treatment has proved to be an effective method to prevent the 351-nm laser-induced damage sites in a fused silica surface from exponentially growing, which is responsible for limiting the lifetime of optics in high fluence laser systems. However, the CO₂ laser induced ablation crater is often surrounded by a raised rim at the edge, which can also result in the intensification of transmitted ultraviolet light that may damage the downstream optics. In this work, the three-dimensional finite-difference time-domain method is developed to simulate the distribution of electrical field intensity in the vicinity of the CO₂ laser mitigated damage site located in the exit subsurface of fused silica. The simulated results show that the repaired damage sites with raised rims cause more notable modulation to the incident laser than those without rims. Specifically, we present a theoretical model of using dimpled patterning to control the rim structure around the edge of repaired damage sites to avoid damage to downstream optics. The calculated results accord well with previous experimental results and the underlying physical mechanism is analysed in detail.

Key words: laser-induced damage, fused silica, mitigated damage site, three-dimensional finite-difference time-domain