The damage of the optical components induced by the stimulated Brillouin scattering

A theory of excitation of ultrasonic waves in the stimulated Brillouin scattering (SBS) process is presented in this paper. By using several reasonable approximations, a numerical calculation of the transient longitudinal SBS shows that large amplitude of acoustic waves can be built up by the nanosecond pulse of high-power laser, which may result in the damage of optical glasses. The maximal density change and the maximal acoustic wave intensity in optical glasses of 5 cm in thickness are calculated by using different parameters of the high-energy laser, such as the intensity, the pulse width, and the wave length. The damage threshold of the optical glasses is about 80 GW/cm² when using a 1064 nm laser. The dynamic mechanism of SBS is the electrostriction effect of the components coupling with the high-power laser.