The effect of different drying methods on band gap energy and femtosecond LIDT of nano-porous anti-reflective silica thin films

In this work, nano-porous anti-reflective silica thin films are deposited on the quartz samples by dip-coating in silica sol–gel. After dip-coating, the samples are divided into three groups and each group is heated in an oven with a different drying method. The effect of the heating methods on the morphology and optical properties of the coated layers are studied by SEM imaging and measuring optical transmission of the samples. Then based on the transmission data and calculation of absorption coefficient of the layers, the band gap energy of the silica thin films is calculated. In addition, laser induced damage threshold (LIDT) of the samples are measured by using 35 fs, 100 mJ femtosecond laser pulses. It can be seen that there is a distinct correlation between band gap energy and LIDT of the samples which both of them have been affected by heating method of the coated samples.