Assessment of the thermal conductivity of silica at high temperature

As large optics made in silica used in power lasers present unavoidable surface defects as fabricated and after use, it is possible to repair these damages by means of an annealing obtained by irradiation of silica with a CO2 laser. The authors briefly report the development of a code which models the transformation of a silica surface illuminated by such a laser. In order to assess the thermal conductivity, the surface temperature of a sample has been measured by infrared thermography and compared with simulation results which allow the correct value of this conductivity to be determined by means of successive approaches