Mitigation of organic laser damage precursors from chemical processing of fused silica

Increases in the laser damage threshold of fused silica have been driven by the successive elimination of near-surface damage precursors such as polishing residue, fractures, and inorganic salts. In this work, we show that trace impurities in ultrapure water used to process fused silica optics may be responsible for the formation of carbonaceous deposits. We use surrogate materials to show that organic compounds precipitated onto fused silica surfaces form discrete damage precursors. Following a standard etching process, solvent-free oxidative decomposition using oxygen plasma or high-temperature thermal treatments in air reduced the total density of damage precursors to as low as