For some time, Atomic Layer Deposition has been evaluated and driven towards applications in photonics. It’s proposed high quality with pinhole free films, high density and excellent conformity suggests strongly to take this process towards laser applications. First results from investigations on damage threshold levels of state-of-the-art Al2O3 and HfO2 films and interaction details in the damage initiation process will be presented and discussed. Data on nanosecond laser-induced damage from 1064nm down to 266nm will give an overview on the status of ALD films in this particular field in Optics.