Sol-gel coatings for high-power laser optics: past, present and future

An investigation into the preparation of sol-gel coatings for high power lasers was started at LLNL in 1983 and AR coatings were successfully developed for use in the Nova laser in 1984. Several other large lasers now use these coatings. Subsequent work on HR coatings resulted in AlOOH/SiO2 and later ZrO2 or HfO2/SiO2 systems of good optical performance. The use of organic polymer binders gave increased damage threshold and enhanced optical performance. We are in the process of scaling up HR fabrication for substrates approximately 38 cm square. Concurrently we are developing sol-gel random phase plates for laser beam smoothing. These have a patterned surface design of silica which induces phase shifts in the beam by variation in the optical path length. Plates of this type on 80 cm diameter substrates have been used successfully on the Nova.