National Ignition Facility small optics laser-induced damage and photometry measurements program

The National Ignition Facility will require upwards of 25,000 small optical components in its various beam conditioning and diagnostic packages. A quality control program designed to ensure that the elements meet the required specifications will test these optical elements. For many of the components, damage performance is one of the critical specifications, which will require state-of-the-art performance from the industry participants. A program was initiated to understand the current performance level of such optics. The results of this study as it pertains to laser-induced damage is shown. The use of ratio reflectometry is also addressed as the method of choice for photometry measurements on these industry supplied optics. Key words: Optical coatings, qualification, specifications, laser-induced damage, photometry, ratio reflectometr