Deterministic single shot and multiple shots bulk damage thresholds for doped and undoped, crystalline and ceramic YAG

We measured the single-shot and multiple-shot damage thresholds of pure and Nddoped ceramic Yttrium Aluminum Garnet (YAG), and of pure, Nd-doped, Cr-doped, and Yb-doped crystalline YAG. We used 9.9 ns, single-longitudinal-mode, TEM00 pulses tightly focused inside the ceramic and crystalline YAG. The 8 microns radius of the focal spot was measured using surface third harmonic generation. With this tight focus the damage threshold powers for both the ceramic and crystalline YAG were below the SBS threshold, and the effect of self focusing was small. We found the single-shot and multiple-shots damage thresholds to be deterministic. The single-shot damage of YAG occurs on the trailing edge of the laser pulse, in contrast to fused silica in which damage always occurs at the peak of the laser pulse. However, the multiple-shot damage threshold of YAG occurs at the peak of the n laser pulse. We find the damage thresholds of doped and undoped, ceramic and crystalline YAG range from 1.1 to 2.2 kJ/cm. We also report some damage morphologies in YAG.