This paper presents investigations to improve the quality of high power antireflective coatings for optical fibers used in material processing with Nd:YAG lasers. The coatings were produced by electron-beam deposition and ion-beam-sputtering on step-index, multimode fibers with a core diameter of 1000 μm. The reflection losses, the absorption, and the laser-induced damage thresholds of these coatings were determined. Hafnia, tantala, and silica were selected as deposition materials for the AR- coatings. For measuring the reflection losses of the coated fiber surfaces, a diode-pumped Nd:YAG laser was used. Absorption measurements were performed by photothermal displacement spectroscopy, a surface sensitive technique which makes scanning of the fiber surface possible. These data were compared to calorimetric values determined from quartz substrates which were deposited in the same coating run. The R-on-1 damage thresholds of the coated fibers were measured using a two-stage single-mode Nd:YAG laser with a pulse duration of 12 ns. A four-stage cw system with 1.2 kW output power and a pulsed Nd:YAG slab laser were used to evaluate the performance of the coated fibers.