Effect of fluorine contamination from multilayer dielectric grating fabrication on picosecond-laser-induced damage resistance

The results revealed that the etching process introduced penetration of fluorine contamination defects, and the degree of fluorine contamination increased in the high-beam etching (HBE) protocol. Furthermore, the quantity of typical shallow damage pits exhibited a significant increase in the HBE films under 7.6-ps laser irradiation, and the 0% laser-induced damage thresholds of gratings and thin films fabricated through the low-beam etching (LBE) protocol achieved significant improvements of 33% and 26%, respectively, compared to those obtained with the HBE protocol.

The LBE protocol will be employed in meter-scale grating fabrication to improve picosecond laser damage resistance.