Strategies to increase laser damage performance of Ta2O5/SiO2 mirrors by modifications of the top layer design

摘要

Ta2O5/SiO2 high reflection (HR) interference coatings for lambda similar to 1 mu m offer superior performance at high irradiance conditions. However, these coatings are not good candidates for high peak power conditions in comparison to HfO2/SiO2 multilayer stacks. Here we show that the modification of the top layers design of a quarter wave Ta2O5/SiO2 high reflector leads to 4-5 fold increase in the laser damage fluence compared to a quarter wave (Ta2O5/SiO2)(15) when tested at lambda = 1.03 mu m using pulse durations of 0.19 and 4 ns and peak power densities of 43.5 and 216 GW/cm(2). One of the designs achieved a laser damage threshold fluence of 174 J/cm(2) at 4 ns, which is 10% higher than that of a HfO2/SiO2 quarter wave design. (C) 2016 Optical Society of America