Capping a glass thin layer on the etched surface via plasma chemical vapor deposition for improving the laser damage performance of fused silica

Opt Express. 2019 Feb 4;27(3):2268-2280. doi: 10.1364/OE.27.002268.

Abstract

Buffered HF-based etching can effectively improve the laser damage resistance of the fused silica, but deep etching would cause the deteriorations in surface roughness and hardness, and decrease the laser-induced damage threshold. Capping a glass thin layer on the etched surface via plasma chemical vapor deposition in one step could overcome those deteriorations. We found that the deposition of the glass thin layer can further reduce the impurity element contamination and the PL intensity while retaining the low subsurface defect density as well as for the deeply etched sample. The surface quality, surface hardness and the laser damage resistance of the fused silica can be significantly improved by the glass thin layer, which reveals the potential application in high power laser facility.