Ta_(2)O_(5) films are deposited on fused silica substrates by electron beam evaporation method.The optical property,x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy,band gap and nanosecond laser-induced damage threshold(LIDT)of the films before and after annealing are studied.It is found that the existence of an oxygen vacancy results in the decrease of the transmittance,refractive index,both macroscopic band gap and microscopic band gap,and the LIDT of Ta_(2)O_(5) films.If the oxygen vacancy forms,the macroscopic band gap decreases 2%.However,when the oxygen vacancy forms the microscopic band gap decreases 73%for crystalline Ta_(2)O_(5) and 77%for amorphous Ta_(2)O_(5).The serious decrease of microscopic band gap may significantly increase the absorbance of the micro-area in Ta_(2)O_(5) films when irradiated by laser,thus the damage probability increases.It is consistent with our experimental results that the LIDT of the as-deposited Ta_(2)O_(5) films is 7.3 J/cm^(2),which increases 26%to 9.2 J/cm^(2) when the oxygen vacancy is eliminated after annealing.
Ta2O5 films are prepared by e-beam evaporation with varied deposition temperatures, annealing temperatures, and annealing times. The effects of temperature on the optical properties, chemical composition, structure, and laser- induced damage threshold （LIDT） are systematically investigated. The results show that the increase of deposition temperature decreases the film transmittance slightly, yet annealing below 923 K is beneficial for the transmittance. The XRD analysis reveals that the film is in the amorphous phase when annealed below 873 K and in thehexagonal phase when annealed at 1073 K. While an interesting near-crystalline phase is found when annealed at 923 K. The LIDT increases with the deposition temperature increasing, whereas it increases firstly and then decreases as the annealing temperature increases. In addition, the increase of the annealing time from 4 h to 12 h is favourable to improving the LIDT, which is mainly due to the improvement of the O/Ta ratio. The highest LIDT film is obtained when annealed at 923 K, owing to the lowest density of defect.
