Crack-free thin-film stacks of silica and titania layers were prepared by a sol-gel dip-coating process involving flash-heating and shock-cooling steps. The final Bragg stacks were thermally annealed at different temperatures and their properties were investigated. While annealing increased the intra-layer properties (layer densification, increased crystallinity), it weakened inter-layer strength, leading to cracking and delamination under high-power laser irradiation. In contrast, stacks that were flash-heated only showed excellent radiation stability. (C) 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.