Numerical simulation of laser damage to an optical material with defects

Laser damage was simulated numerically for two different defect distribution functions in terms of the breakdown initiation thresholds in order to study the statistical dependences. Various methods of obtaining dependences of the breakdown probability and its density on the laser radiation intensity are discussed. A numerical experiment is used to show that the method of the inverse problem of the laser breakdown statistics can be used for the diagnostics of microinclusions initiating damage in transparent optical materials.