An exhaustive study of laser damage in ion beam sputtered pure and mixture oxide thin films at 1030nm with 500fs pulse durations

摘要

We report on the laser damage resistance of thin films prepared by Ion Beam Sputtering. The samples are fused silica substrates coated with single layer films of pure oxides (SiO_2, Nb_2O_5, ZrO_2, HfO_2, Ta_2O_5, Al_2O_3, Sc_2O_3) and oxide mixtures with various ratios (Nb_2O_5/SiO_2, ZrO_2/SiO_2, HfO_2/SiO_2, Ta_2O_5/SiO_2, Al_2O_3/SiO_2 and Sc_2O_3/SiO_2). For this study the LIDT of more than 60 different samples have measured at 1030nm with pulse durations of 500fs with single pulse irradiation. The results are expressed and compared in terms of LIDT as a function of the measured band gap energy and refractive index. For simple oxide materials a linear evolution of the LIDT with bandgap is observed, with the exception of Sc_2O_3 material where a very high damage threshold is observed, compared to other high index materials, In the case of mixtures, a more complex behavior is evidenced.