Conventional HfO2/SiO2 and Al2O3/HfO2/SiO2 double stack high reflective (HR) coatings at 532 nm are deposited by electron beam evaporation onto BK7 substrates. The laser-induced damage threshold (LIDT) of two kinds of HR coatings is tested, showing that the laser damage resistance of the double stack HR coatings (16 J/cm2) is better than that of the conventional HR coatings (12.8 J/cm2). Besides, the optical properties, surface conditions, and damage morphologies of each group samples are characterized. The results show that laser damage resistance of conventional HR coatings is determined by absorptive defect, while nodular defect is responsible for the LIDT of double stack HR coatings.

A model is developed to improve thickness uniformity of coatings on spherical substrates rapidly and automatically using fixed shadow masks in a planetary rotation system. The coating thickness is accurately represented by a function composed of basic thickness, self-shadow effect, and shadow mask function. A type of mask with parabolic contours is proposed, and the thickness uniformity of coatings on spherical substrates can be improved in a large range of ratios of clear aperture (CA) to radius of curvature (RoC) by optimizing shadow masks using a numerical optimization algorithm. Theoretically, the thickness uniformity improves to more than 97.5% of CA/RoC from –1.9 to 1.9. Experimentally, the thickness uniformities of coatings on a convex spherical substrate (CA/RoC = 1.53) and on a concave spherical substrate (CA/RoC=–1.65) improve to be better than 98.5% after corrected by the shadow masks.

Residual stress, which can be inevitably introduced during the optical films deposition process, must be controlled in many applications since the surface deformation is caused. The residual stress is traditionally controlled by adjusting the process parameters. However, the process parameters are determined by other more desired properties in many fields. In these cases, layer structure is the only variable to change the residual stress status of the components. Ta2O5/SiO2 is most commonly used material pair in visible/near infrared (VIS/NIR) region. In this letter, stress behaviors of Ta2O5 and SiO2 single layers deposited by ion-assisted deposition (IAD) are studied. Stress-thickness linear correlation curves of the two materials are obtained, which agree with the commonly reported linear results. Based on these features, a kind of antireflection (AR) coating acted as back side coating is designed to control the residual stress of components by the layer structure designing. A series of AR coatings at 1 319 nm are designed, according to residual stress status desired to introduce.

In this letter, using mult-half-wave structure and some chosen films optimized method, the long-wave infrared (LWIR) narrow-band pass filter is investigated, meanwhile the opposite of the substrate coated with long-wavelength pass film. The transmittance of design spectrum is more than 80% at wavelength region of 8.05–8.35 \mu m, and the average transmittance is less than 0.5% at wavelength region of less than 7.95 and 8.45–14 \mu m. The filter is prepared by thermal evaporation method, and plasma-assisted deposition technology. The experiment result shows that the average transmittance is about 75% in the transmission wavelength range, and the average transmittance of cut-off band is about 0.3%. The results show that multi-half-wave structure and some chosen films optimized method for the preparation LWIR narrow-band pass filter are feasible. The film system is simplified and is convenient to prepare the film.

Fabrication of Ag or Au nanocolumns by oblique angle deposition (OAD) is now prevalent for their surface enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) property and their biosensor application. However, the size, shape, and the density of nanocolumns are not directed in a desired way. To sufficiently realize the growth process controlled by multiple physical factors like deposition angle (\alpha), substrate temperature (T), and deposition rate (F), we develop a three-dimensional (3D) kinetic Monte Carlo (KMC) model for simulating processes of Ag nanocolumnar growth by oblique angle deposition. The dependences of nanocolumnar morphologies on these factors are analyzed. The mimical results reach a reasonable agreement with the experimental morphologies generated by OAD.

We show that absorbed and stored electromagnetic energy are proportional to the reflection group delay in highly reflective dispersive dielectric mirrors over the high-reflectivity band. Our theoretical considerations are verified by numerical simulations performed on different dielectric mirror structures. The revealed proportionality between group delay and absorbed energy sets constraint on the application of ultrabroadband and/or dispersive dielectric mirrors in broadband or widely tunable, high-power laser systems.

The formation process of silicon-nanocrystals (Si-NCs) in the amorphous silicon/silicon dioxide (a-Si/SiO2) multilayer structure during thermal annealing is theoretically studied with a modified model based on the Gibbs free energy variation. In this model, the concept of average effective interfacial free energy variation is introduced and the whole formation process consisting of nucleation and subsequent growth is considered. The calculating results indicate that there is a lower limit of the silicon layer thickness for forming Si-NCs in a-Si/SiO2 multilayer, and the oxide interfaces cannot constrain their lateral growth. Furthermore, by comparing the results for a-Si/SiO2 and a-Si/SiNx multilayers, it is found that the constraint on the crystal growth from the dielectric interfaces depends on the difference between interfacial free energies.

Different approaches to the design of dispersive mirrors (DMs) for ultrafast applications are considered. High efficiency and good quality of solutions are achieved due to a completely analytical approach to the computations of all DM characteristics and a modern version of the needle optimization technique. Different means to suppress group delay dispersion (GDD) oscillations are demonstrated. Alternatively, design approaches not based on GDD optimization are described, including time-domain design approaches based on direct optimization of pulse energy concentration.