Annealing effects on electron-beam evaporated Al2O3 films

It was found that the cut-off wavelength shifted to short wavelength as the annealing temperature increased and the total optical loss decreased. The film structure remained amorphous even after annealing at 400 °C temperature and the samples annealed at higher temperature had the higher rms surface roughness. The decreasing total optical loss with annealing temperature was attributed to the reduction of absorption owing to oxidation of the film by annealing. Guidance to reduce the optical loss of excimer laser mirrors was given.