Ion beam sputtering coatings on large substrates: toward an improvement of the mechanical and optical performances

Large mirrors (ø350 mm) having extremely low optical loss (absorption, scattering, wavefront) were coated for the VIRGO interferometer. The new generation of mirrors needs to have a better wavefront and lower mechanical loss. To improve the component wavefront, the corrective coating technique was used. By doping the tantalum pentoxide layers, we improved, for the first time to our knowledge, the multilayer mechanical loss. The first results are discussed.