Characteristics of high reflection mirror with an SiO2 top layer for multilayer dielectric grating

The high reflection (HR) mirror composed of dielectric stacks with excellent spectrum characteristics and high damage resistant ability is critical for fabricating multilayer dielectric (MLD) grating for pulse compressor. The selection of the SiO2 material as the top layer of the HR mirror for grating fabrication is beneficial for improving the laser-induced damage threshold of MLD grating as well as minimizing the standing-wave effect in the photoresist during the exposure process. Based on an (HLL) H-9 design comprising quarter-waves of HfO2 ( H) and half-waves of SiO2 ( L), we obtain an optimal design of the HR mirror for MLD grating, the SiO2 top layer of which is optimized with a merit function including both the diffraction efficiency of the MLD grating and the electric field enhancement in the grating. Dependence of the performance of the MLD grating on the fabrication error of the dielectric mirror is analysed in detail. The HR mirror is also fabricated by E-beam evaporation, which shows good spectral characteristics at the exposure wavelength of 413 nm and at the operation wavelength of 1053 nm and an average damage threshold of 10 J cm(-2) for a 12 ns pulse.

Preparation of high laser induced damage threshold antireflection film using interrupted ion assisted deposition

Single layers and antireflection films were deposited by electron beam evaporation, ion assisted deposition and interrupted ion assisted deposition, respectively. Antireflection film of quite high laser damage threshold (18J/cm(2)) deposited by interrupted ion assisted deposition were got. The electric field distribution, weak absorption, and residual stress of films and their relations to damage threshold were investigated. It was shown that the laser induced damage threshold of film was the result of competition of disadvantages and advantages, and interrupted ion assisted deposition was one of the valuable methods for preparing high laser induced damage threshold films. (c) 2007 Optical Society of America

Effect of SiO2 protective layer on the femtosecond laser-induced damage of HfO2/SiO2 multilayer high-reflective coatings

Two kinds of HfO2/SiO2 800 nm high-reflective (HR) coatings, with and without SiO2 protective layer were deposited by electron beam evaporation. Laser-induced damage thresholds (LIDT) were measured for all samples with femtosecond laser pulses. The surface morphologies and the depth information of all samples were observed by Leica optical microscopy and WYKO surface profiler, respectively. It is found that SiO2 protective layer had no positive effect on improving the LIDT of HR coating. A simple model including the conduction band electron production via multiphoton ionization and impact ionization is used to explain this phenomenon. Theoretical calculations show that the damage occurs first in the SiO2 protective layer for HfO2/SiO2 HR coating with SiO2 protective layer. The relation of LIDT for two kinds of HfO2/SiO2 HR coatings in calculation agrees with the experiment result. (c) 2006 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Optimization of thin-film design for multi-layer dielectric grating

Thin-film design used to fabricate multi-layer dielectric (MLD) gratings should provide high transmittance during holography exposure, high reflectance at use wavelength and sufficient manufacturing latitude of the grating design making the MLD grating achieve both high diffraction efficiency and low electric field enhancement. Based on a (HLL)H-9 design comprising of quarter-waves of high-index material and half-waves of low-index material, we obtain an optimum MLD coating meeting these requirements by inserting a matching layer being half a quarter-wave of Al2O3 between the initial design and an optimized HfO2 top layer. The optimized MLD coatings exhibits a low reflectance of 0.017% under photoresist at the exposure angle of 17.8 degrees for 413 nm light and a high reflectance of 99.61% under air at the use angle of 51.2 degrees for 1053 nm light. Numerical calculation of intensity distribution in the photoresist coated on the MLD film during exposure shows that standing-wave patterns are greatly minimized and thus simulation profile of photoresist gratings after development demonstrates smoother shapes with lower roughness. Furthermore, a MLD gratings with grooves etched into the top layer of this MLD coating provides a high diffraction efficiency of 99.5% and a low electric field enhancement ratio of 1.53. This thin-film design shows perfect performances and can be easily fabricated by e-beam evaporation. (c) 2006 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Influence of substrate temperature on properties of MgF2 coatings

Thermal boat evaporation was employed to prepare MgF2 single-layer coatings upon both JGS1 and UBK7 substrates at different substrate temperatures. Microstructure, transmittance and residual stress of these coatings were measured by X-ray diffraction, spectrophotometer, and optical interferometer, respectively. Measurement of laser induced damage threshold (LIDT) of the samples was performed at 355 nm, 8 ns pulses. The results showed that high substrate temperature was beneficial to crystallization of the film. Above 244 degrees C, the refractive index increased gradually with the substrate temperature rising. Whereas, it was exceptional at 210 degrees C that the refractive index was higher than those deposited at 244 and 277 degrees C. The tensile residual stresses were exhibited in all MgF2 films, but not well correlated with the substrate temperature. In addition, the stresses were comparatively smaller upon JGS1 substrates. A tendency could be seen that the LIDTs reached the highest values at about 244 degrees C, and the films upon JGS1 had higher LIDTs than those upon UBK7 substrates at the same temperature. Meanwhile, the damage morphologies showed that the laser damage of the coating resulted from an absorbing center at the film-substrate interface. The features of the damages were displayed by an absorbing center dominated model. Furthermore, the reason of the difference in LIDT values was discussed in detail. (C) 2007 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Influence of deposition conditions on the microstructure of oxides thin films

Thin films of ZrO2, HfO2 and TiO2 were deposited on kinds of substrates by electron beam evaporation (EB), ion assisted deposition (IAD) and dual ion beam sputtering (DIBS). Then some of them were annealed at different temperatures. X-ray diffraction (XRD) was applied to determine the crystalline phase and the grain size of these films, and the results revealed that their microstructures strongly depended on the deposition conditions such as substrate, deposition temperature, deposition method and annealing temperature. Theory of crystal growth and migratory diffusion were applied to explain the difference of crystalline structures between these thin films deposited and treated under various conditions. (c) 2007 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Effects of annealing on laser-induced damage threshold of TiO2/SiO2 high reflectors

The mechanism of improving 1064 nm, 12 ns laser-induced damage threshold (LIDT) of TiO2/SiO2 high reflectors (HR) prepared by electronic beam evaporation from 5.1 to 13.1 J/cm(2) by thermal annealing is discussed. Through optical properties, structure and chemical composition analysis, it is found that the reduced atomic non-stoichiometric defects are the main reason of absorption decrease and LIDT rise after annealing. A remarkable increase of LIDT is found at 300 degrees C annealing. The refractive index and film inhomogeneity rise, physical thickness decrease, and film stress changes from compress stress to tensile stress due to the structure change during annealing. (c) 2007 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Preparation and characterization of nanostructured ZrO2 thin films by glancing angle deposition

ZrO2 films were prepared by electron beam evaporation with glancing angle deposition (GLAD) technique. The as-deposition and annealed ZrO2 films are all amorphous, different from that deposited at normal incidence. Due to the shadowing effect, a highly orientated structure composed of slanted columns formed, and the obtained films became the mixture of slanted columns and voids. The relationship among the effective refractive index, packing density and flux incident angle was investigated. The refractive index and packing density of ZrO2 films decrease with the increase of the incident angle. The in-plane birefringence of GLAD ZrO2 films was calculated. At the packing density of 0.576, the maximum birefringence is 0.037. (c) 2006 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

利用等效层的消偏振宽带减反膜设计

分析了倾斜入射条件下导致光学薄膜产生偏振的原因, 针对不同偏振态的等效导纳与等效相位进行了分析, 并计算了对称膜层在45°入射条件下不同偏振态的等效折射率与等效相位厚度, 采用等效层方法设计了光学性能良好的600～900 nm波段消偏振宽带减反膜。最后利用电子束蒸发技术制备了薄膜样品, 样品的光谱性能完全能够满足使用要求。其中在600～900 nm波段范围内, 平均反射率均小于1.38%, 反射率的偏振度均低于0.89％。另外, 通过对其理论及实验光学性能、角度敏感性、膜层厚度误差敏感性等方面的分析结果可

三倍频分光膜在1064 nm的破斑特性研究

采用电子束蒸发方式制备了两种不同材料组合的分光膜,分别对其在波长1064 nm激光辐照下的损伤阈值进行了测试,用Alpha-Step 500台阶仪对破斑进行了深度测量。实验结果表明,破斑呈现出表面层的剥落和深坑破坏两种形态。表面层的剥落深度在一定范围内不随能量密度的变化而变化；深坑破坏深浅不一,是膜内缺陷融化、汽化及喷发的综合作用的结果,是损伤阈值降低的主要原因。

LBO晶体上具有不同厚度过渡层的倍频增透膜的设计和制备

Design and preparation of frequency doubling antireflection coating with different thicknesses of interlayer were investigated for LiB₃O₅ (LBO) substrate. The design was based on the vector method. The thickness of the inserted SiO₂ interlayer could be changed in a wide range for the four-layer design with two zeros at 1064 and 532 nm. The coatings without any interlayer and with 0.1 quarter-wave (λ/4), 0.3 λ/4, 0.5 λ/4 SiO₂ interlayer were deposited respectively on LBO by using electron beam evaporation technique. All the prepared coatings with SiO₂ interlayer indicated satisfying optical behavior. This expanded our option for the thickness of an interlayer when coating on LBO substrate. The prepared films with SiO₂ interlayer showed better adhesion than that without any interlayer. The thickness of the interlayer affected the adhesion, the adhesion for the coating with 0.5 λ/4 SiO₂ interlayer was not as good as the other two.}

Y_2O_3稳定ZrO_2薄膜的结构和光学特性

用电子束蒸发法制备出四种不同Y2O3含量的Y2O3稳定ZrO2（YSZ）薄膜,用X射线衍射和透射光谱测定薄膜的结构和光学性能.结果表明：随着Y2O3含量的增加,ZrO2薄膜从单斜相向高温相（四方相和立方相）转变,获得了结构稳定的YSZ薄膜;YSZ薄膜的晶粒尺寸都比ZrO2薄膜的大,但随着Y2O3加入量的增加,晶粒尺寸有减小的趋势,薄膜表面也趋向光滑平整.所有YSZ薄膜的透射谱线都与ZrO2薄膜相似,在可见光和红外光区都有较高的透过率.Y2O3的加入还可以改变薄膜的折射率,在一定范围内可得到所需的任意折射率

两种后处理方法对HfO2薄膜性能的影响

利用电子束蒸发和光电极值监控技术制备了氧化铪薄膜，并分别用两种后处理方法（空气中退火和氧等离子体轰击）对样品进行了处理．然后，对样品的透过率、吸收和抗激光损伤阈值进行了测试分析．实验结果表明，两种后处理方法都能不同程度地降低了氧化铪薄膜的吸收损耗、提高了抗激光损伤阈值．实验结果还表明，氧等离子体轰击的后处理效果明显优于热退火，样品的吸收平均值在氧等离子体后处理前后分别为34．8ppm和9．0ppm，而基频（1 064nm）激光损伤阈值分别为10．0J／cm^2和21．4J／cm^2．

LBO晶体上1064，532nm倍频增透膜的镀制及性能分析

用电子束蒸发沉积方法在X切LBO（X-LBO）晶体上镀制了两种不同膜系结构的1064和532nm倍频增透膜，其中一种膜系结构为基底／ZrO2／Y2O3／A12O3／SiO2／空气，另一种为基底／0．5Al2O3／ZrO2／Y2O3／A12O3／SiO2／空气，两种膜系结构的主要差别在于有无氧化铝过渡层。测量了薄膜的反射率光谱曲线，发现两种增透膜在1064和532nm处的反射率均小于0．5％，实际镀制结果与理论设计曲线的差异主要是由材料折射率的变化引起的。且对样品在空气环境中进行了温度为473K的退火处理，

沉积温度对LaF3薄膜性能的影响

abstract {LaF₃ single-layer coatings were prepared by thermal boat evaporation at the deposition temperatures of 189, 255, 277 and 321°C respectively. The crystal structures of the coatings were characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD). A spectrophotometer was employed to measure its transmittance. Moreover, refractive index, extinction coefficient and cut-off wavelength were obtained from the measured transmittance spectral curve. The residual stress was evaluated by the Stoney's equation and optical interferometer. Laser induce damage threshold (LIDT) was performed by a tripled Nd:YAG laser system. The results show that the crystallization status becomes better with the deposition temperature increasing. Correspondingly, the grain size also gets larger. Meanwhile, the coatings become more compact and the refractive index increases. However, the absorption of coatings seriously rises and the cut-off wavelength drifts to the long wave. In addition, the residual stress also increases and the intrinsic stress plays a determinant role in the coating. The LIDT of the coating also enhances at high temperature.}