The adsorption behavior between particle contamination and fused silica in high-energy laser system

In high-energy laser facility, the residual nano-particles that are remained in mechanical system or produced by the interaction of kinetic-pairs are inevitable. The generation and the propagation of particulate pollutants will seriously reduce the performance of the laser systems. Therefore, the research about the adsorption behavior of particle contaminants on fused silica is very important to maintain the optical components' surface clean, reduce induced damage, and finally prolong the life of the optical components. In this paper, the adsorption behavior between aluminum nano-particles and fused silica was simulated by molecular dynamics method. The effect of the surface roughness of fused silica on the state of adsorption and the state before adsorption has been studied. Then an experiment system based on an atomic force microscope was established to measure the adsorption force and further to verify the simulated results. Finally, the adsorption mechanism between metallic nano-particles and fused silica was revealed. The results show that surface roughness and the size of the particles are two of the main factors to influence the adsorption force. The rough fused silica surface can be particle-phobic due to the decreased contact area, which is beneficial to keep the fused silica surface clean.