Strategies to increase laser damage performance of Ta2O5/SiO2mirrors by modifications of the top layer design.
Ta2O5/SiO2high reflection (HR) interference coatings for λ∼1  μm offer superior performance at high irradiance conditions. However, these coatings are not good candidates for high peak power conditions in comparison to HfO2/SiO2multilayer stacks. Here we show that the modification of the top layers design of a quarter wave Ta2O5/SiO2high reflector leads to 4-5 fold increase in the laser damage fluence compared to a quarter wave (Ta2O5/SiO2)15when tested at λ=1.03  μm using pulse durations of 0.19 and 4 ns and peak power densities of 43.5 and 216  GW/cm2. One of the designs achieved a laser damage threshold fluence of 174  J/cm2at 4 ns, which is 10% higher than that of a HfO2/SiO2quarter wave design.
Drew
D
Schiltz
Dinesh
D
Patel
Cory
C
Baumgarten
Brendan A
BA
Reagan
Jorge J
JJ
Rocca
Carmen S
CS
Menoni