Growth Characteristics and Mechanism of Surface and Bulk Damage in KDP and DKDP Crystals

By testing the number increase and size growth of surface and bulk laser induced damage in KDP and DKDP crystals, we observe different growth characteristics of surface and bulk damage under multiple 355nm laser irradiations. The size of the surface damage grows exponentially, but that of the bulk damage does not grow. In contrast, the bulk damage number increases, but that of surface damage does not increase significantly. We attribute the differences to the different formation of the damage initiators and the different damage testing volumes.