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Title: Investigation of sol-gel antireflective coatings

Technical Report ·
OSTI ID:5133601

Very high power laser systems present material design challenges which often approach the inherent optical survival strength of components. Optical coatings in the UV region suffer from anomalously high absorption and scattering in the deposited layers. The losses caused by these effects are often unacceptable or, in the case of absorption, usually fatal to the absorbing coatings. Unfortunately, no metals exist that have high enough reflectivities in the UV to serve as uncoated mirrors as they normally do in the CO/sub 2/ region of the infrared. Adequate multilayer dielectric coatings are therefore critically important for the development and utilization of UV lasers. The same could be said for relfection suppressing antireflective coatings in that wavelength range. Antireflective properties of gradientindex designs have been rediscovered and their potential for resolving UV laser design difficulties has been vigorously tested. These antireflective properties have been attained on glass or fused silica surfaces by chemical surface treatments.

Research Organization:
Rochester Univ., NY (USA). Lab. for Laser Energetics
DOE Contract Number:
AC08-80DP40124
OSTI ID:
5133601
Report Number(s):
DOE/DP/40124-21; ON: DE84008381
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English