Several novel coating recipes have been developed with ion-assisted electron beam deposition (IAEBD) of various fluorides, oxides, and nitrides in combination with conformal layers of aluminum oxide (AlOx) deposited by ALD using trimethylaluminum as a metal precursor and water vapor as a reactant. Extending on our previous results demonstrating the superior durability of ALD-based AlOx top barrier layers over conventionally-deposited AlOx, this work investigates the effects on mirror barrier durability comparing different anti-oxidation materials on Ag with an identical AlOx top barrier layer deposited by ALD. Samples of coating recipes with different anti-oxidation layers undergo aggressive environmental testing, including high temperature/high humidity (HTHH), in which samples are exposed to an environment of 80% humidity at 80°C for ten days in a simple test set-up. While most samples show fairly successful endurance after HTHH testing, visible results suggest that MgAl2O4, Al2O3, and AlN anti-oxidation layers offer enhanced robust protection against chemical corrosion and moisture in an accelerated aging environment, which is attributed to superior adhesion and intermolecular bonding between the Al-based anti-oxidation layers and the AlOx top barrier layer. Mirror samples are further characterized by reflectivity/absorption before and after deposition of oxide coatings. We also show that the performance of the ALD-AlOx barrier layer depends in part on the temperature of that process. |
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Cited by 5 scholarly publications.