Mixed oxide coatings for optics.

Material mixtures offer new possibilities for synthesizing coating materials with tailored optical and mechanical properties. We present experimental results on mixtures of HfO2, ZrO2, and Al2O3, pursuing applications in UV coating technology, while the mixtures are prepared by magnetron sputtering, ion beam sputtering, plasma ion-assisted deposition (PIAD), and electron beam evaporation without assistance. The properties investigated include the refractive index, optical gap, thermal shift, and mechanical stress. The first high reflectors for UV applications have been deposited by PIAD.

1 W of stable single-frequency output at 1.03 mum from a novel, monolithic, non-planar Yb:YAG ring laser operating at room temperature.

We demonstrate, for the first time to our knowledge, a longitudinally diode-pumped, monolithic ytterbium ion-doped YAG non-planar ring laser (NPRO). We achieved a continuous-wave (cw) single-frequency output power of 1 W with 45.0% slope efficiency and a beam quality factor of M(2)<1.1. In view of iodine frequency stabilization we have characterized the frequency tuning properties and have measured the relative intensity noise. Additionally, 6.1 mW second harmonic power at 515 nm was achieved using a periodically poled KTP crystal in a single-pass setup.