Crystallization of HfO2 thin films and their influence on laser induced damage

We present our investigation on the crystallization of IBS HfO2 on (0001) SiO2. The crystallization was studied by in-situ XRD. The activation energy was 2.6±0.5 eV. The growth follows a two-dimensional mode. LIDT measurements (5000-on-1) with 10 ns pulses at 355 nm on 3QWT HfO2 layers shows that the crystallization leads to increase of the laser irradiation resistance. The 0%-LIDT of the as coated sample was 3.1 J/cm2 and increased to 3.7 J/cm2 after 5h @ 500°C.