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29 October 2019 Impact of contamination and aging effects on the long-term laser damage resistance of SiO2/HfO2/TiO2 high reflection coatings for 1054 nm
Ella S. Field, Damon E. Kletecka
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Abstract

The laser damage thresholds of optical coatings can degrade over time due to a variety of factors, including contamination and aging. Optical coatings deposited using electron beam evaporation are particularly susceptible to degradation due to their porous structure. In a previous study, the laser damage thresholds of optical coatings were reduced by roughly a factor of 2 from the years 2013 to 2017. The coatings in question were high reflectors for 1054 nm that contained SiO2 and HfO2 and/or TiO2 layers, and they were stored in sealed PETG containers in a class 100 clean room with temperature control. At the time, it was not certain whether contamination or thin-film aging effects were responsible for the reduced laser damage thresholds. Therefore, to better understand the role of contamination, the coatings were recleaned and the laser damage thresholds were measured again in 2018. The results indicate that the contamination played the most dominant role in reducing the laser damage thresholds of these optical coatings, even though they were stored in an environment that was presumed to be clean.

CC BY: © The Authors. Published by SPIE under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 Unported License. Distribution or reproduction of this work in whole or in part requires full attribution of the original publication, including its DOI.
Ella S. Field and Damon E. Kletecka "Impact of contamination and aging effects on the long-term laser damage resistance of SiO2/HfO2/TiO2 high reflection coatings for 1054 nm," Optical Engineering 58(10), 105105 (29 October 2019). https://doi.org/10.1117/1.OE.58.10.105105
Received: 21 May 2019; Accepted: 15 October 2019; Published: 29 October 2019
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CITATIONS
Cited by 6 scholarly publications.
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KEYWORDS
Optical coatings

Contamination

Hybrid fiber optics

Laser induced damage

Laser damage threshold

Resistance

Mirrors

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