NATIONAL BUREAU OF STANDARDS The National Bureau of Standards' was established by an act of Congress on March 3, 1901. The Bureau's overall goal is to strengthen and advance the Nation's science and technology and facilitate their effective application for public benefit. To this end, the Bureau conducts research and provides: (1) a basis for the Nation's physical measurement system, (2) scientific and technological services for industry and government, (3) a technical basis for equity in trade, and (4) technical services to promote public safety. The Bureau's technical work is performed by the National Measurement Laboratory, the National Engineering Laboratory, and the Institute for Computer Sciences and Technology. THE NATIONAL MEASUREMENT LABORATORY provides the national system of physical and chemical and materials measurement; coordinates the system with measurement systems of other nations and furnishes essential services leading to accurate and uniform physical and chemical measurement throughout the Nation's scientific community, industry, and commerce; conducts materials research leading to improved methods of measurement, standards, and data on the properties of materials needed by industry, commerce, educational institutions, and Government; provides advisory and research services to other Government agencies; develops, produces, and distributes Standard Reference Materials; and provides calibration services. The Laboratory consists of the following centers: Absolute Physical Quantities? Radiation Research Chemical Physics Analytical Chemistry Materials Science THE NATIONAL ENGINEERING LABORATORY provides technology and technical services to the public and private sectors to address national needs and to solve national problems; conducts research in engineering and applied science in support of these efforts; builds and maintains competence in the necessary disciplines required to carry out this research and technical service; develops engineering data and measurement capabilities; provides engineering measurement traceability services; develops test methods and proposes engineering standards and code changes; develops and proposes new engineering practices; and develops and improves mechanisms to transfer results of its research to the ultimate user. The Laboratory consists of the following centers: Manufacturing Chemical Engineering2 Applied Mathematics Electronics and Electrical Engineering2 THE INSTITUTE FOR COMPUTER SCIENCES AND TECHNOLOGY conducts research and provides scientific and technical services to aid Federal agencies in the selection, acquisition, application, and use of computer technology to improve effectiveness and economy in Government operations in accordance with Public Law 89-306 (40 U.Ś.C. 759), relevant Executive Orders, and other directives; carries out this mission by managing the Federal Information Processing Standards Program, developing Federal ADP standards guidelines, and managing Federal participation in ADP voluntary standardization activities; provides scientific and technological advisory services and assistance to Federal agencies; and provides the technical foundation for computer-related policies of the Federal Government. The Institute consists of the following centers: Programming Science and Technology - Computer Systems Engineering. 'Headquarters and Laboratories at Gaithersburg, MD, unless otherwise noted; mailing address Washington, DC 20234. 'Some divisions within the center are located at Boulder, CO 80303. U.S. DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE, Malcolm Baldrige, Secretary Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 83:600625 National Bureau of Standards Special Publication 669 U.S. Government Printing Office For sale by the Superintendent of Documents, U.S. Government Printing Office, Washington, DC 20402 Foreword STM. 334683448 The Proceedings contain the papers presented at the Fourteenth Symposium on Optical Materials for High Power Lasers held at the National Bureau of Standards (NBS) in Boulder, Colorado, on November 16-17, 1982. The Symposium was jointly sponsored by the National Bureau of Standards, the American Society for Testing and Materials, the Office of Naval Research, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, the, Department of Energy, and the Air Force Office of Scientific Research. The Symposium was attended by approximately 200 scientists from the United States, the United Kingdom, Japan, France, West Germany, and the USSR. It was divided into sessions devoted to the following topics: Materials and Measurements, Mirrors and Surfaces, Thin Films, and finally Fundamental Mechanisms. The Symposium Co-Chairmen were Dr. Harold E. Bennett of the Naval Weapons Center, Dr. Arthur H. Guenther of the Air Force Weapons Laboratory, Dr. David Milam of the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, and Dr. Brian E. Newnam of the Los Alamos National Laboratory. They also served as editors of this report. Dr. Alexander J. Glass of KMS Fusion acts as Conference Treasurer with Aaron A. Sanders of the National Bureau of Standards as the Conference Coordinator. The editors assume full responsibility for the summary, conclusions, and recommendations contained in the report and for the summaries of discussion found at the end of each paper. The manuscripts of the papers presented at the Symposium have been prepared by the designated authors, and questions pertaining to their content should be addressed to those authors. The interested reader is referred to the bibliography at the end of the summary article for general references to the literature of laser damage studies. The Fifteenth Annual Symposium on this topic will be held in Boulder, Colorado, from November 14-16, 1983. A concerted effort will be made to ensure closer liaison between the practitioners of high peak power and the high average-power community. The principal topics to be considered as contributed papers in 1983 do not differ drastically from those enumerated above. We expect to see a continuing transfer of information from research activities to industrial practice. New sources at shorter wavelengths continue to be developed, and a corresponding shift in emphasis to short wavelength and repetitively pulsed damage problems is anticipated. Fabrication and test procedures will continue to be developed together with an improved understanding of defectdominated damage mechanisms. The purpose of these symposia is to exchange information about optical materials for high power lasers. The editors will welcome comment and criticism from all interested readers relevant to this purpose, and particularly relative to our plans for the Fifteenth Annual Symposium. H. E. Bennett, A. H. Guenther, D. Milam, and B. E. Newnam |