Optical Damage Threshold Testing Instrumentation at NASA Langley Research Center. This work was sanctioned and funded by Code Q, R, & AE to develop a new standard for damage testing various types of optical materials and coatings. Laser Induced Damage Threshold (LIDT) testing is a destructive test procedure to determine the minimum applied laser energy level that will result in damage and is referred to as the damage threshold. The damage threshold is often the critical limitation in the section of optical materials for use in high-energy laser systems.The test station consists of diagnostic equipment, beam conditioning optical elements, an inspection microscope and three lasers: a high energy pulsed ND: Yag, which develops 650mJ at 10 hz and outputs three wavelengths which include 1.06m, 532nm and 355 nm; a Ti:sapphire laser which produces a continuum of laser output from 790nm to 900nm; and a alignment HeNe, which looks yellow when mixed with the 2nd harmonic ND:Yag laser. Laser sources are used to perform damage threshold testing at the specific wavelength of interest.
