Cleaning of Laser Optics

URL: www.laserfaq.de/laseratr.htm

What's the BIG Deal About Cleaning?

ALL of the optics (mirrors, Brewster windows, Littrow prisms, etalons, etc.) used
inside a laser cavity are extremely delicate and easily damaged by contact with
their surface or improper or excessive cleaning. Ultra-fine scratches that you
wouldn't notice in a million years of eyeglass cleaning will result in a degradation
of your laser's beam quality or output power. This is particularly true of the coated
dichroic mirrors but to a lesser extent also affects the optical glass components
as well. Cleaning, even when done properly, invariably results in some
degradation of the optics surface.

The reason this is so critical for external mirror lasers is that photons inside the
cavity bounce back and forth dozens or hundreds or more times and every little
scratch, spec of dust, smudge, or other blemish in the as close to perfect as
possible surface can deflect, absorb, or otherwise corrupt the beam before any of
it makes it way out the end of the laser! Even though your smile may appear to
be reflected without degradation, in reality, the mirror may be useless for its
intended purpose.

The sections below provide information on how to get the maximum life out of
your optics.

Note: While these techniques may be overkill for optics outside the cavity (e.g.,
the external surfaces of the OC mirror on internal mirror HeNe laser tubes), they
certainly won't hurt. And, getting into the habit of using the higher grade
chemicals and taking proper care will prepare you for dealing with the more
finicky optics inside the laser cavity. However, if all you are interested in at the
moment is cleaning your little HeNe or other internal mirror tube, see the section:
Internal Mirror HeNe Tube Optics .

And, some options for cleaning aluminized bounce mirrors (not dichroic laser
mirrors!) include:
Soap and water.
Household cleaners like Fantastik(tm).
Glass cleaner like Sparkle(tm) or Windex(tm).
Liquid CO2.
However, one must still take care not to scratch the surface with contaminated or
abrasive wipes. And it won't hurt to use the same procedures as for high quality
delicate laser mirrors!

Make Sure Your Mirrors Aren't Going to Dissolve!

The recommended chemicals and procedures below assume hard-coated
dielectric mirrors for HeNe or ion lasers on a substrate like optical glass. Those
of you with CO2 and excimer lasers with salt optics or group III-IV semiconductor
optics will need other materials.

Some older lasers may have soft-coated optics using dielectric materials that
may be water or alcohol soluble before. These were manufactured in the days
before they could reach the higher temperatures needed to do nice things with
materials like hafnium oxide and titanium oxide. I don't know what is used to
clean a soft-coated optic without damaging it terminally. :-( Probably ethyl acetate
or something equally exotic. It is likely that water, alcohol (isopropyl or methyl),
and acetone, will degrade the surface almost instantly, rendering the mirror
useless. If the active area is clean, gently blow off the dust but otherwise leave
well enough alone!

How to tell if you have soft-coated optics? Carefully test the very edge of the
coated area in a location that doesn't matter. If it is something you don't want to
deal with, a bit of pure water, alcohol, or acetone (see the cleaning procedure
below; drop and drag, don't rub!), will result in mottling, fine striations, or an
otherwise ugly appearance to the surface after drying. The beam of a HeNe laser
reflected off such an abused mirror onto a white card will show distinct
interference patterns due to diffraction from the damaged surface.

Consult your laser supplier (HaHa!) or optics manufacturer for more information
(but you may need to dig their expert up from the grave for 30 year equipment!).

Chemicals and Supplies for Optics Cleaning

For hard-coated (or uncoated) glass optics, you will need the following:
Ultra high purity methanol - gas chromatograph grade or spectroscopic grade.

Ultra high purity acetone - gas chromatograph grade or spectroscopic grade.

For really bad fingerprints, hydrogen peroxide (3%) and high purity laboratory
distilled water.

Sterile Throat Swabs in individual packages on wood sticks without glue

(Puritan(tm) and Qtips(tm) brands don't seem to have glue when purchased
from a pharmacist in sterile form. Unwind the cotton carefully to look for glue.
(Have your friendly Pharmacist order you a case - it's cheaper!)

Lens tissue from a lab supplier in sealed envelopes. Using generic

photographic tissue is not recommended. When I did a survey of laser refurb
techs and light show techs, most recommended the Kodak tissue as it is sold in
sealed packs. Many inexpensive tissues have impurities that can scratch soft
laser optics.
Alcohol or acetone sold over the counter in the United States will contain
denaturing agents or tracking chemicals to prevent unintended uses such as drug
making. These show up as a white film on the optics. Get these chemicals from
a lab supplier who can attest to the purity. (Kodak or Omnisolve is preferred).
Keep the lids on the bottles so as not to pick up moisture from the air, and always
pour out what you will need into a smaller container to avoid back contamination
of your primary source from swabs or lens tissue. I flow warm filtered argon gas
into my bottles before resealing. This aids in shelf life of these expensive fluids.
DO NOT attempt to use common isopropyl (rubbing) alcohol for optics cleaning
as it will leave a thin polymer film on your optic that is hard to see but really
decreases lasing power. You can tell if you have water in your fluids as they will
'ball up' into droplets that hang around after the film of cleaning fluid evaporates.

CAUTION: Hard-coated optics are only hard in a relative sort of way. No matter
how careful you are, any contact with the surface degrades it slightly or worse.
Therefore, don't be a cleaning fanatic - only do it when absolutely needed and
use the proper materials and procedures! And make sure you have hard-coated
optics

Optics Cleaning Procedure

Here are two cleaning procedures. The "drop and drag" method is potentially
gentler but can't be used on all optics.

The "wet and wipe" method should be used for mirrors and surfaces inside the
laser, small mirrors you have a hard time holding in your hand, or mirrors where
the holder prevents limits access to the sides of the optic, cavity optics for low
power lasers (i.e., HeNe or air-cooled ion, HeCd, etc.), optics that need a real
scrubbing, light pickoffs, tilted optics surfaces, or mirrors smaller then 10 mm.

It is hard to precision swab a 10 mm mirror without a lot of practice. It usually

requires holding the mirror sideways in your fingers to swab it, and you're likely to
drop it. You usually leave contaminants at one edge of the mirror with a swab.
This is why most large ion lasers offset the mirror surface from the face of the
holder, to enable drop and drag cleaning. I strongly urge klutzes like myself
(Steve) or nervous nellies to make a holder for cleaning their small optics. I'm
getting older and I drop them more and more. (I've been known to drop $600
mirrors on the lab floor. --- Sam)

For larger optics that can be removed from the laser with the entire surface is
exposed, use the "drop and drag" method if possible.

Wet and Wipe Method

These two steps will be repeated for each optic surface. Note that quartz (often
used for Brewster windows) is fairly robust. However, even modern hard dichroic
coatings and common optical glass are much less forgiving. AVOID attempting
to clean a dry surface - that is just asking for scratches. Use the technniques
described below.

Take a swab, wet it with acetone, let it set a moment, then flush it with more
acetone. Wipe it from the top of the optic downward with a rolling motion. You
want to just scrub the optic. This takes some pressure, but be gentle. Do
exactly one pass with each swab and then discard the swab. Break it in half so
you do not accidentally reuse it. Do this 2 to 3 times and then let the optic dry
and examine it with a bright light for residual dust and films. Use lens tissue if
very dirty, otherwise use swabs. Let gravity work to your advantage to get the
contaminants to flow downward.

Repeat the above with methanol till clean. Acetone kills grease, methanol
cleans the surface.

DO NOT clean any optics mount rubber O-rings as these will contaminate the
optic with byproducts after the laser heats up if cleaned with other then distilled
water.

Here is a another similar method found in the instruction manual for the Spectra-
Physics model 120 helium-neon laser:
Using dry nitrogen, blow away any dust or lint on the optical surface. This step is
extremely important as any dust or lint left on the optical surface can result in a
scratch that will damage it permanently. If dry nitrogen is not available, an air
bulb can be used to generate low pressure air for the same purpose.

Wash your hands thoroughly with liquid detergent. This step is important for the
reason that body oil and contaminants on the fingers can be transferred to the
optical surfaces during the cleaning process resulting in re-contamination.

Draw some (spectroscopic grade) acetone into an eye-dropper and squeeze out
one drop (or two if necessary) to cover the optic surface. Then take a piece of
lens tissue, place it on the wetted surface, and gently draw it across the optic to
remove the contaminants that have dissolved or floated to the cleaning solvent
surface. Use a lens tissue only once.
(Note: This instruction manual dates from 1970. I do not know whether the
mirrors in this laser were hard-coated or soft-coated. Acetone is safe for hard-
coated optics but may damage at least some types of soft-coated optics.)

Drop and Drag Method

This requires practice on a round piece scrap glass before doing it on a optic.
Lay a piece of high grade optics tissue lightly over the optic. Handle the tissues
only by the edge. Grip the optic holder in your weak hand (i.e., your left hand if
you are right-handed) and the tissue in the strong hand. Balance the tissue on
the optic. With your strong hand drop methanol or acetone (if badly dirty or
greasy) onto the tissue over the optic so it flows through the tissue and saturates
on the optic. Raise your weak hand up a little and tilt the the optic and tissue
toward your strong hand so it's about a 15 degree angle from vertical. You'll note
with practice that when a certain amount of methanol has evaporated, that if you
drag the tissue slowly and carefully across the optic, a white line of dry tissue
appears, yet you still have some wetness holding down the side of the tissue
moving with the tissue movement off the optic. In other words, a diminishing
region of tissue has enough surface tension to hold the dry tissue down and you
both swab the optic and 95% dry it in the same pass. You visually watch the
evaporation as the tissue drys. Surface tension forces drive most of the dust and
crud into the moving fluid, and the optic is literally pulled clean. You do not want
to wait until the whole drop starts evaporating evenly across the optic, hence the
15 degree tilt that will favor one side to start evaporating. It's not easy, and it
requires a good pure solvent (e.g., spectroscopic grade as described above). It
won't work with water, only polar solvents that have a high vapor pressure.

Links to Other Methods

In addition to the info above, there are a couple of Web sites that should be of
interest.

The Coherent Laser Group provides a nice tutorial on Cleaning of Laser Optics .

Another similar tutorial is provided at by Directed Light, Inc. on its How To Clean
Laser Optics page. This also deals with soft dichroic and metal coated mirrors
as well as the usual hard-coated variety.

However, the use of detergent and water as suggested at this site is to be

avoided except as a last resort (perhaps needed for breadboard optics left out in
the open air of a lab for years). Some coatings are hydroscopic and may absorb
the water. It is also a great way for them to collect all sorts of gunk - stick with
the acetone and methanol.

Vapor Phase Optics Cleaning

(From: Steve Hardy (hardy@sweng.stortek.com).)

Another way of cleaning optics and other delicate objects is to construct a vapour
phase degreaser.

Get a metal can (e.g., a soft drink can with the top cut off) and make a loose
fitting lid. Wrap copper pipe around the top of the can for cooling water.
Suspend the object to be cleaned, face down, from the lid. Put methanol or some
other suitable solvent in the can and heat over a hot plate (not an open flame!).

When the solvent heats sufficiently, its vapour will rise to the top of the can. Pure
solvent condenses on the object and drips back to the bottom, taking dirt with it.
The cooling water creates an appropriate temperature gradient as well as
economizing on solvent.