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Laser conditioning of optical coatings: A statistical study of defects by atomic force microscopy

Conference ·
OSTI ID:552065
; ;  [1]
  1. CEA - Centre d`Etudes le Limeil-Valenton, Villeneuve Saint Georges (France); and others
Laser conditioning is a process which consists in illuminating a coating by a laser below damage threshold in order to increase this threshold value. In a previous study the authors had reported that laser conditioning actually results in minimization or elimination of surface defects present after coating elaboration. The present paper reports a statistical study whose goal is to seek a correlation between defects size and shape, and defect evolution during laser conditioning. In order to achieve this, hundreds of defects are individually analyzed before and after laser conditioning using Atomic Force Microscopy. The observed samples are e-beam deposited highly reflecting multilayers of ZrO{sub 2}/SiO{sub 2} and HfO{sub 2}/SiO{sub 2} mirrors, and also single layers Of SiO{sub 2} and ZrO{sub 2}.
Research Organization:
International Society for Optical Engineering, Washington, DC (United States)
OSTI ID:
552065
Report Number(s):
CONF-9510106--Vol.2714
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English