Abstract
We report laser-induced damage thresholds (LIDTs) at chemical vapor deposition (CVD)-grown diamond surfaces for 200-ps CO 2 laser pulses, obtained with photoacoustic diagnostics. The results are compared with those at ZnSe and Ge surfaces under the same experimental condition. For 200-ps laser pulses, CVD diamond, ZnSe, and Ge were measured and found to have damage fluences of 1.2, 0.45, and 0.2 J/cm 2 , respectively, for a laser waist radius of 134 μm. Acoustic measurement indicated a relatively large variation in the LIDT of the CVD-grown diamond because of its polycrystalline structure. © 2002 Optical Society of America.