Open AccessImprovement on laser-induced damage threshold of sol-gel ZrO_2 coatings by crystal structure tuning
Author(s) -
Xiao Dong Wang,
Guangming Wu,
Bin Zhou,
Jun Shen
Publication year - 2012
Publication title -
optics express
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.394
H-Index - 271
ISSN - 1094-4087
DOI - 10.1364/oe.20.024482
Subject(s) - materials science , refractive index , tetragonal crystal system , raman spectroscopy , annealing (glass) , laser , monoclinic crystal system , optics , crystal (programming language) , crystal structure , coating , optoelectronics , composite material , crystallography , programming language , chemistry , physics , computer science
With the development and construction of high peak power lasers it has become more and more important to improve the laser-induced damage threshold (LIDT) of optical coatings. In this paper, ZrO(2) coatings were deposited by sol-gel dip-coating method and further treated by conventional furnace annealing (CFA) and rapid thermal annealing (RTA) at different temperatures. By measuring the Raman spectra, optical constants and LIDT, the influence of annealing on the crystal structures, refractive indices, laser-induced damage characters of ZrO(2) coatings were analyzed. The results show that RTA is effective in tuning the crystal structures of ZrO(2) coatings. Lattice mismatch between monoclinic and tetragonal phases happened on CFA treated film reduces its refractive index, hence the film annealed by RTA at 800 °C realizes a higher refractive index. Compared with CFA annealed films, RTA annealed films were no more susceptible to laser damage due to their crystal structure difference caused lager band gap.