ATR-FTIR spectroscopic studies on density changes of fused silica induced by localized CO_2 laser treatment

The surface density changes of the central region of the sites treated by using the CO2 laser-based non-evaporative damage mitigation for fused silica are investigated by attenuated total reflectance-Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy（ATR-FTIR）.The ATR-FTIR peak shifts of the treated sites of fused silica are monitored to determine the changes of the corresponding density.For the quenching treated sites,the surface density is increased by（0.24±0.01）%compared with the initial density but the laser annealing by the exposure of a power ramp down after damage mitigation effectively suppresses the structural changes of treated sites,which could reduce the increase of the corresponding density to（0.08±0.01）%.The results provide sufficient evidence that the laser annealing by a power ramp down after damage mitigation has a positive effect on the control of the structural change induced by CO2 laser-based damage mitigation.