Advances in ion beam sputtered Sc 2 O 3 for optical interference coatings

Abstract

Scandium oxide is an attractive candidate for the engineering of interference coatings, although not widely explored. This paper describes the ion beam sputtering of Sc₂O₃. It is shown that the structural properties of the material are affected by the deposition conditions. Laser damage in different regimes of pulsewidths is investigated. These results show that the 1-on-1 laser damage fluence, in both the thermal and deterministic regimes, varies with deposition conditions but this is not the case for S-on-1, indicating that laser-induced defects are important.