Infiltrating Control of SiO2/ZrO2 Sol-Gel Films by Ammonia Treatment

The twolayer SiO2/ZrO2 thin films were deposited on K9 glass by solgel dipcoating method. The colloidal suspensions of ZrO2 and SiO2 were prepared using Zr(OPr)4 and TEOS as materials, respectively. For sample 1, the ZrO2 film was directly deposited on the predeposited SiO2 film. For sample 2, the ZrO2 film was deposited on the predeposited and ammoniatreated SiO2 film. Analysis results indicate that the simulated ψλ and Δλ curves are perfectly consistent with the experimental curves. The results show that the thickness of infiltrated layer of sample 2 is reduced by 45 nm by ammonia treatment compared with smaple 1. The laserinduced damage threshold (LIDT) of the two kinds of films were measured. The LIDT of samples 1 and 2 are 14.8 and 15.03 J/cm2, respectively. The damage morphologies are mainly ablation according to optical microscopy.