Sol-gel processing of zirconia high-index coatings

Book · Sun Dec 31 04:00:00 EST 1995

OSTI ID:234204

Vong, M S.W.; Sermon, P A ^[1]; Sun, Y ^[2]; Spriggs, D ^[3]

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1. Brunel Univ., Uxbridge (United Kingdom)
2. Chinese Academy of Sciences, Taiyuan (China). State Key Lab. of Coal Conversion
3. AWE, Reading (United Kingdom)

Aqueous-inorganic (AIZ) and organic (OZ) zirconia sols have been synthesized by hydrothermal and alcothermal techniques. The size and structure of the ZrO{sub 2} nanoparticles of which the sols were composed were dependent on the reaction precursors and the synthesis conditions used. AIZ produced crystallites which were a mixture of monoclinic and metastable tetragonal ZrO{sub 2}, while the OZ route yielded mainly amorphous particles. ZrO{sub 2} coatings deposited from both sols showed comparable laser-induced damage thresholds to SiO{sub 2} sol-gel anti-reflective (AR) coatings. Thus, they could be candidates for the high index component in alternating SiO{sub 2}/ZrO{sub 2} stacks for highly reflective mirrors. Here the authors describe sol-gel routes to ZrO{sub 2} coatings and the benefits in terms of resistance to laser damage of the addition of polyethylene glycol (PEG). The relevant microchemistry is discussed.

• OSTI ID: 234204
• Report Number(s): CONF-9505264--; ISBN 0-8194-1997-4
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE
42 ENGINEERING
70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY
ANTIREFLECTION COATINGS
DAMAGE
EXPERIMENTAL DATA
LASER RADIATION
MICROSTRUCTURE
OPTICAL PROPERTIES
OPTICAL SYSTEMS
PERFORMANCE
SOL-GEL PROCESS
SOLID STATE LASERS
ZIRCONIUM OXIDES