Laser Induced Damage Threshold
Scaling Calculator

Notes:

• Please use the American standard for number formatting rather than the European standard (i.e. for "two and a half," enter "2.5" rather than "2,5").
• This calculator is valid for wavelengths between 248-1100nm, pulse durations between 1-100ns, and beam diameters between 1-25mm. Since the equation used is only valid for small shifts in use parameters, this calculator is only intended to be used for shifts in use conditions within these limits:
  • ± 5% of input wavelength
  • ± factor of 3 of pulse duration
  • ± factor of 2 of beam diameter
• Temporal scaling of pulse duration following (τ₂/τ₁)^0.5 is a commonly accepted convention and experimental observations of this relationship range from (τ₂/τ₁)^0.3 to (τ₂/τ₁)^0.6, depending on what exactly was measured.¹

Description

The laser induced damage threshold (LIDT) of an optical component is dependent on wavelength, pulse duration, and beam diameter. If an optic’s specified LIDT is at a different wavelength, pulse duration, or diameter than that of the application, the LIDT must be re-evaluated at the application specifications. For small changes in these specifications, the resulting scaling of LIDT can be approximated. The larger the difference between the test conditions and the use conditions, the less accurate the scaling. This calculator takes a given LIDT value for a pulsed laser at a known wavelength (λ₁), pulse duration (τ₁), and beam diameter (∅₁), and scales it to a new LIDT at a different wavelength (λ₂), pulse duration (τ₂), and beam diameter (∅₂).