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Many optical systems require mirrors that push the limits of manufacturability and deliver near-perfect reflectivity and reflected-wavefront control. Consequently, it&#;s often advantageous for optical system designers, or anyone selecting mirrors for steering lasers on an optical bench, to engage optical coating engineers early in the design process. After all, optimizing system performance requires understanding the tradeoffs between mirror reflectivity, wavefront, weight, thermomechanical performance, laser damage threshold, and cost.

Many laser mirrors are Bragg reflectors that take advantage of multiple Fresnel reflections and optical interference to amplify reflectivity via a multilayer dielectric stack of alternating high- and low-index-of-refraction thin films. Such mirrors are typically manufactured using vacuum physical vapor deposition (PVD) techniques such as evaporation and sputtering (see Fig. 1).

Evaporative PVD requires heating metal oxides and fluorides to the evaporation or sublimation point under vacuum such that evaporated material condenses onto optics inside the vacuum chamber, creating a dielectric thin film. Sputtered PVD accelerates noble-gas ions towards a target using either an ion source (ion-beam sputtering) or magnetically confined plasma (magnetron sputtering).

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Material is sputtered from the target onto optics co-located in the vacuum chamber to create thin films. The kinetic energy of evaporated atoms is <0.5 eV, while the energy of ion-assisted or sputtered atoms can reach hundreds of electron volts. Higher-energy atoms arriving at the optic surface will rearrange into more tightly packed structures.

There is no one technique that works best for all applications. As a general rule, sputtering results in mirrors with higher density, lower scatter, and higher stress. Evaporated coatings have higher scatter loss, but still have advantages in many ultraviolet (UV) and pulsed high-energy laser applications. 

Reflectivity

The maximum reflectivity of a Bragg reflector is ultimately limited by scatter and absorption in its component thin films. In the near-infrared (near-IR), it is possible to achieve >99.9% reflectivity using evaporative techniques, and >99.999% reflectivity using IBS.

As wavelength decreases, film losses due to scatter and absorption increase. Understanding how phase impacts reflectivity is also important. It is described by the Fresnel equations that, as the angle of light incident on a mirror surface increases, the reflectivity of s-polarized light at each thin-film boundary increases and the reflectivity of p-polarized light decreases up to Brewster&#;s angle. 

Achieving the same theoretical reflectivity at high angles requires more layers to reflect p-polarized light than s-polarized light. This has repercussions for both mirror loss and reflected wavefront. At high angles, p-polarized light spends more time in the mirror stack than s-polarized light, resulting in greater losses due to absorption and scatter and lower overall reflectivity. For high-quality, low-loss IBS films, this difference in reflectivity is small&#;typically measured in parts per million. For evaporated near-IR mirrors, the difference in reflectivity between s- and p-polarized light can be as high as several tenths of a percent at high angles.

Achieving the same theoretical reflectivity at high angles requires more layers to reflect-polarized light than-polarized light. This has repercussions for both mirror loss and reflected wavefront. At high angles,-polarized light spends more time in the mirror stack than-polarized light, resulting in greater losses due to absorption and scatter and lower overall reflectivity. For high-quality, low-loss IBS films, this difference in reflectivity is small&#;typically measured in parts per million. For evaporated near-IR mirrors, the difference in reflectivity between- and-polarized light can be as high as several tenths of a percent at high angles.

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