Laser conditioning and nonlinear absorption of LaF3/MgF2 dielectric multilayers at 193 nm

A sensitive and simple pulsed surface thermal lens (TL) technique is used in situ to investigate the laser conditioning and to measure the nonlinear absorption of LaF₃/MgF₂ dielectric multilayers deposited on CaF₂ substrates at 193 nm. Due to the high single-shot sensitivity of the surface TL technique, the laser conditioning can be monitored from the first shot of irradiation on a shot-by-shot basis. The LaF₃/MgF₂ multilayers show a very strong conditioning effect. The ratio of the absorption before and after the laser irradiation is in the range 4–8 for a highly reflective (LH)²⁰ LaF₃/MgF₂ multilayer, and 3–4 for (1L3H)⁷ and (3L1H)⁷ multilayers. In comparison, a (LH)²⁰ LaF₃/AlF₃ multilayer shows only a weak conditioning effect, with an absorption ratio of approximately 1.4. Our experimental results suggest that the strong conditioning effect of the LaF₃/MgF₂ multilayer is due to the absorption conditioning of the LaF₃ layers. However, the MgF₂ layers are shown to be responsible for the considerable increase in LaF₃ absorption as well as the ability to condition the absorption. The fluoride multilayers present non-negligible nonlinear absorption and the two-photon absorption coefficient of the multilayers is estimated to be approximately 5×10^-7 cm/W. Received: 11 December 2000 / Accepted: 20 February 2001 / Published online: 25 July 2001