Source: https://www.osapublishing.org/oe/abstract.cfm?URI=oe-25-1-305
Timestamp: 2019-04-23 16:35:20+00:00

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Broadband low dispersion (BBLD) mirrors are an essential component in femto-second (fs) pulse laser systems. We designed and produced Ta2O5-HfO2/SiO2 composite quarter-wave and non-quarter-wave HfO2/SiO2 BBLD mirrors for the 30fs petawatt laser system. The laser damage properties of the BBLD mirrors were investigated in an uncompressed sub-nanosecond laser pulse. It showed that the Ta2O5-HfO2/SiO2 composite BBLD mirror possessed higher LIDT due to the low electric-field intensity (EFI) in the case of the coating without artificial nodules. Nevertheless, the LIDT of the composite mirror was significantly lower than the non-quarter-wave HfO2/SiO2 mirror when the nodules exist. The EFI simulation and damage morphology of the nodules analysis demonstrated that the nodule leading to the light intensification in the middle of the boundary between the nodular and the surrounding coating, thus the outermost HfO2/SiO2 layers cannot protect the Ta2O5/SiO2 layers, and resulting to the significantly low LIDT. This study shed some light on the development of high-laser-damage BBLD mirrors for pulse compression laser systems.
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Fig. 1 Coating structures and EFI distributions of two broadband low dispersion mirrors.
Fig. 2 Comparison of measured GDD data (red crosses) and theoretical GDD (solid black curve) of the low-dispersive mirrors.
Fig. 3 Ejection fluence of artificial nodules of the three HR coatings.
Fig. 4 Comparisons between simulated |E|2 distributions and damage morphologies of nodules in HfO2/SiO2 QW mirror, modified HfO2/SiO2 mirror and the composite mirror: (a1-a3) the cross-section morphologies of the nodules; (b1-b3) Typical damage morphologies of the nodules; (c1-c3) FDTD-simulated p-polarized |E|2 distributions where the white lines represent film stacks and the color scale is different for different nodules.
Fig. 5 The damage growth threshold of the three broadband low dispersion HR coatings.

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