Resistance of coated optics to UV laser irradiation

Today there is hardly any product in the optical industry without the implication of optical coatings. Mainly in the UV spectral region laser induced damage thresholds (LIDT) of these coatings are a limiting factor for the development of cost-effective resonator, beam relay, and mask imaging optics. Based on state of the art LIDT knowledge, high reflective (HR) and anti reflective (AR) coatings for high power excimer lasers were investigated. Some rules for preparing interference coatings with very high UV-LIDT will be given.