Dielectric quantized nanolaminates for laser optics

Abstract

In general, there are just a few numbers of available dielectric materials suitable to produce laser optics. Such binary dielectric films are limited by fixed optical properties e.g. index of refraction and intrinsic laser induced damage threshold (LIDT). Optical properties of dielectric layers need to be manipulated precisely for further improvement. One approach is given by the deposition of ternary composites. The other approach is well known for crystalline materials and takes benefit of quantized effects. In the last years it could be shown that such effects can be utilized in amorphous dielectric layers as well. As a major benefit quantized nanolaminates enable the possibility to keep the index of refraction high with improved optical band gap. This proceeding gives an overview about key experiments of manufactured dielectric quantized nanolaminate samples and its advantages compared to ternary composites.