COMPARATIVE PHOTOTHERMAL STUDY OF REACTIVE LOW-VOLTAGE ION-PLATED ANDELECTRON-BEAM-EVAPORATED TIO2 THIN-FILMS

The thickness-dependent optical and thermal properties and the corresp onding damage thresholds have been investigated by means of various ph otothermal techniques on titanium dioxide thin films prepared by the c onventional techniques of reactive electron-beam evaporation and react ive low-voltage ion plating (RLVIP). Compared with the reactive-electr on-beam-evaporated samples, the RLVIP films exhibit a higher absorptio n, lower damage threshold, better thermal conductivity, lower defect d ensity, and an almost perfect stability under Ar+-laser irradiation. T hese results are correlated with data from a multimethod approach, and a mechanism is proposed to explain the low damage threshold for the R LVIP TiO2 films.