The field of LID in optical materials encompasses a broad range of phenomena, processes, and effects associated with the high-power and/or high-energy laser-material interactions that irreversibly modify the optical properties of the materials. Examples of these permanent changes in materials are increased scattering, reduction of transmittance or modification of surface morphology. LID has been a fundamental limitation to the performance of lasers and laser systems staring form the earliest days of the laser epoch. Initially described as a "small" technical problem, in a few years LID became of global interest to the high-power and high-energy laser communities as a major impediment to the increase of output power or energy of lasers and systems. The major strategic aims of research efforts of this field are to properly characterize threshold of LID and identify approaches that increase the LID threshold. 53 years of research on LID of optical materials have delivered a tremendous progress in terms of understanding the fundamental mechanisms of LID and orders-of-magnitude improvements of LID threshold of high-power laser optics. Despite the significant advances made, the problem of LID has not been generally solved for arbitrary laser and material parameters. Moreover, research progress in adjacent areas motivates continued efforts in this field.
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