Comparative study of Laser induce damage of HfO2/SiO2 and TiO2/SiO2 mirrors at 1064 nm.

A comparative study of laser induced damage of HfO2/SiO2 and TiO2/SiO2 mirrors at 1064 nm has been carried out. One TiO2/SiO2 mirror with absorption of 300 ppm and two HfO2/SiO2 mirrors with absorption of 40 and 4.5 ppm were fabricated using electron beam evaporation method. For r-on-1 test, all HfO2/SiO2 mirrors with low average absorption are above 150 J/cm2 at 10 ns. However, the TiO2/SiO2 mirrors with high average absorption are just 9.5 J/cm2, which are probably due to the rather high absorption and rather low band gap energy. Meanwhile, all the samples were irradiated from front and back side respectively using the raster scan test mode. In case of front side irradiation, it is found that: for TiO2/SiO2 high reflectors, the representative damage morphologies are shallow pits that were probably caused by absorbing centers. However, for HfO2/SiO2 high reflectors, the dominant damage morphologies are micrometer-sized nodules ejected pits and the delamination initiating from the pits. The absorption of HfO2/SiO2 coatings is low enough to have minor influence on the laser damage resistance. In case of backside irradiation, the morphology of TiO2/SiO2 mirrors is mainly center melted pits that are thermal melting induced damage. Meanwhile, HfO2/SiO2 mirrors with isometrical fracture rings damage morphology are thermal induced stress damage.