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Abstract
An intrinsic mechanism of laser-induced damage of transparent solids is proposed. The mechanism is based on the existence of a radiation-stimulated process of accumulation of submicroscopic defects. The breakdown strength of the electric field of a light wave (E) is shown to be dependent on the specimen temperature (T) and on the total time of irradiation by N pulses of duration tp: E= [U 0-kTln(Nt pτ0 −1)]γ−1, where k is the Boltzmann constant with time parameter τ0 and structural parameter γ. Supposing that the action of light on the lattice is caused by stimulated Brillouin scattering, a scheme for elementary defect initiation is described. The proposed optical damage mechanism establishes the limited character of the notion of a ‘breakdown threshold’ and hence of the models which do not take into account the ‘memory’ of preceding light action.