Effect of native defects and laser-induced defects on multi-shot laser-induced damage in multilayer mirrors

The roles of laser-induced defects and native defects in multilayer mirrors under multi-shot irradiation condition are investigated. The HfO2/SiO2 dielectric mirrors are deposited by electron beam evaporation (EBE). Laser damage testing is carried out on both the 1-on-1 and S-on-1 regimes using 355-nm pulsed laser at a duration of 8 ns. It is found that the single-shot laser-induced damage threshold (LIDT) is much higher than the multi-shot LIDT. In the multi-shot mode, the main factor influencing LIDT is the accumulation of irreversible laser-induced defects and native defects. The surface morphologies of the samples are observed by optical microscopy. Moreover, the number of laser-induced defects affects the damage probability of the samples. A correlative model based on critical conduction band (CB) electron density (ED) is presented to simulate the multi-shot damage behavior.