Antireflection coatings are used to enhance the performance of a wide variety of optical devices. Laser and nonlinear optical devices are among the most demanding for antireflection coating applications, requiring both excellent optical properties and good durability. In this article, we report on the optical properties of zirconium silicate based thin films and their application as antireflection coatings for a number of components used in laser applications. These films have been demonstrated to be easily and reproducibly prepared, to have readily tailored indices of refraction, and to withstand the high optical intensities found in device applications. Films with indices of refraction in the range of 1.6-1.9 have been prepared using rf planar magnetron sputtering, allowing optimized antireflection coatings to be deposited on a variety of materials, including GaP, GaAs, and AlGaAs.