Quality Assessment of Variable Reflectivity Laser Mirrors with High Laser –Induced Damage Threshold and Structural Analysis

Subject Areas : Journal of Optoelectronical Nanostructures

Hasan Ebadian ¹ (Faculty of Applied Sciences. Malek- Ashtar University of Technology. Iran)
Omid Sheikhi ² (Faculty of Applied Sciences. Malek- Ashtar University of Technology. Iran)
Mahdi Mardiha ³ (Faculty of Applied Sciences. Malek- Ashtar University of Technology. Iran)

Received: 2023-08-23 Accepted : 2024-03-05 Published : 2024-02-01

Keywords: FESEM, Variable Reflectivity Mirrors (VRM), PVD, Laser induced damage threshold (LIDT),

Abstract :

Abstract: We report the results of an experimental study on the fabrication of a multilayer variable reflectivity laser mirror and the morphological analysis of optical thin film layers. In a design procedure, a series of variable reflectivity laser mirrors are fabricated and characterized with different methods. In this research, based on pulsed solid-state Nd:YAG lasers at 1064 nm, two types of variable reflectivity laser mirrors with (HfO₂/SiO₂) and (ZrO₂/SiO₂) materials are fabricated by electron beam evaporation method. The central reflectivity of R₀ =30 and 35 % for two super Gaussian orders of n=3 and 4 is manufactured and qualified by ellipsometry and laser beam scan methods. The Laser-induced damage threshold experiments demonstrated that, the VRMs with multilayers of HfO₂/SiO₂, have a higher Laser-induced damage threshold than ZrO₂/SiO₂, which was 10 J/cm² and 7 J/cm², correspondingly. Also, in a novel and exact FESEM approach, the morphological structure of the VRM thin layers was monitored which gives a deeper insight into the layer structure and helped us to calibrate the PVD device for shaped VRM.

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