<title>Improved coatings for HF overtone lasers</title>

Abstract

Optical components which highly reflect the hydrogen fluoride (HF) overtone wavelengths (near 1.3 micrometers ) and transmit or absorb the HF fundamental wavelengths (2.6 to 3.1 micrometers ) can be used to obtain high intensity 1.3 micrometers radiation with HF chemical laser technology. Initial efforts in overtone laser development centered around absorbing the fundamental wavelengths. More recently, coatings have been developed which transmit the fundamental through a silicon substrate. This paper describes the deposition of a series of such coatings made by the Plasma Plating deposition process. Also presented are the improved optical performance results for the coatings. Plasma Plating uses a low voltage, high current ion gun to produce a plasma in which the depositing species are highly ionized. The self- potential sheath around the substrate accelerates the ionized coating species into the substrate, producing dense, low-absorption coatings which have demonstrated a high laser damage threshold.© (1992) COPYRIGHT SPIE--The International Society for Optical Engineering. Downloading of the abstract is permitted for personal use only.