TY - JOUR A1 - Mero, M. A1 - Clapp, B. A1 - Jasapara, J.C. A1 - Rudolph, W. A1 - Ristau, D. A1 - Starke, K. A1 - Krüger, Jörg A1 - Martin, Sven A1 - Kautek, Wolfgang T1 - On the damage behavior of dielectric films when illuminated with multiple femtosecond laser pulses JF - Optical engineering N2 - The physical effects reducing the damage threshold of dielectric films when exposed to multiple femtosecond pulses are investigated. The measured temperature increase of a Ta2O5 film scales exponentially with the pulse fluence. A polarized luminescence signal is observed that depends quadratically on the pulse fluence and is attributed to twophoton excitation of self-trapped excitons that form after band-to-band excitation. The damage fluence decreases with increasing pulse number, but is independent of the repetition rate from 1 Hz to 1 kHz at a constant pulse number. The repetition rate dependence of the breakdown threshold is also measured for TiO2 , HfO2, Al2O3, and SiO2 films. A theoretical model is presented that explains these findings. KW - Laser-induced damage KW - Laser materials KW - Ultrafast phenomena KW - Coatings PY - 2005 DO - https://doi.org/10.1117/1.1905343 SN - 0892-354X VL - 44 IS - 5 SP - 051107-1-051107-7 PB - Dekker CY - New York, NY AN - OPUS4-7406 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER -