The invention discloses a fused quartz surface nanoscale damage precursor passivation technology. The passivation technology includes the following steps that (1) the surface of a fused quartz element with the RMS roughness Rq smaller than 0.5 nm is subject to plasma washing treatment to remove a hydrolysis layer on the surface of the fused quartz element, and a nanoscale damage precursor on the sub surface of the fused quartz element is exposed out; and (2) the surface of the fused quartz element treated in the step (1) is subject to plasma passivation treatment, and nanoscale damage precursor passivation is carried out. The technology has the beneficial effects that the technological process is simple, the maneuverability is high, the nanoscale damage precursor on the fused quartz surface can be removed, and secondary pollution of the surface of the element can be avoided; and by means of the technology, the optical element with the high accuracy and the high surface quality can be machined, and the laser damage resistant capacity of the fused quartz element is effectively improved.