Investigation on damage process of GaAs induced by 1064nm continuous laser

A single crystal GaAs wafer with front face mirror polished was irradiated by a 1064nm continuous laser experimentally. The damage process was investigated by real-time surface reflectivity and optical distribution monitoring. No evident melting and oxidation occurrence was found and the components of Ga and As almost kept constant during the whole damaging process. The distinct differences from the damage by 532nm continuous laser were analyzed as well. For the current wavelength, the damage threshold was greatly dependent on the boundary conditions, consequently only an estimated threshold value about 2kW∕cm2 was obtained.