Investigation of damage threshold of ion beam deposited oxide thin film optics for high peak power, short pulse lasers

In this work we report on the damage threshold of ion beam deposited oxide films designed for high peak power short pulse laser systems. Single layers of ZrO2, SiO2, Al2O3, TiO2, and Ta2O5 and multilayers of Al2O3/TiO2, SiO2/Ta2O5, and SiO2/ZrO2 were grown on polished borosilicate glass substrates using ion beam sputter deposition. Deposition conditions were optimized to yield fully oxidized films as determined from x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). Damage threshold testing was performed using an amplified Ti:Sapphire laser producing a train of 120 picosecond pulses at a wavelength of 800 nm. The laser output was focused with a lens to generate fluences; ranging from 0.1 to 24 J/cm(2). The highest damage threshold of 15.4 J/cm(2) was measured for a single layer film Of SiO2. The damage threshold of high reflectance and anti-reflection multilayer coatings fabricated for 800 nm applications was evaluated using the same procedure as for the single layer films. Highest damage thresholds of 2.5 and 3.5 J/cm(2) were measured for a 6-pair ZrO2/SiO2 high reflectance coating and a 5-layer anti-reflection coating of the same materials.