Mirror coatings for eye-safe laser generation

Eye-safety is of paramount importance in the use of laser-based instruments. Eye safe output at 1.54 micron is very important for various applications such as robot vision, range finding and laser radars in civil and military use. Nonlinear crystals have been used in state-of-the-art rangefinders for providing eye-safe output in the 1550 ± 50 nm band. We present our results on designing a back and a front mirror for eye-safe laser generation at a wavelength of 1538 nm. The back mirror is designed for high transmission at 1067 nm and high reflection at 1351 and 1538 nm. The front mirror is designed for high transmission at 1067 nm, high reflection at 1351 nm and partial reflection at 1538 nm. The optimized design is achieved using titanium dioxide and silicon dioxide layers. In the experiment, the coatings are fabricated by electron beam evaporation on BK7 glass substrates. The characteristics of the coated samples are compared with the results of the calculations, showing good correspondence. The laser mirrors so prepared passed the laser damage and durability tests.