What Are Optical Thin Film Coatings?

What Are Optical Thin Film Coatings?

Optical thin film coatings are essentially used to alter a material’s optical properties – namely changing the reflectance and transmittance properties to the substrate to which it has been applied.

A basic optical thin film coating will normally be made up from a single layer, with other more complicated applications requiring further layers. The selected number of layers and type of coating influence surface reflectivity over specific wavelengths and angles of incidence.

The more complicated, multi-layered thin film coatings enable more variety to incident angles and different wavelengths. Nearly all optical components utilise some form of thin film optical coating before it can be used properly in its intended application.

So where are optical thin film coatings used?

The applications are numerous. As we mentioned above, nearly all optical components need a thin film coating to properly execute the task they have been built for. Common areas that utilise these thin film coatings for optical components include aerospace. medical and military, the entertainment industry (cinema projectors and movie cameras, as examples) and any imaging applications, including microscopy.

Diamond Coatings optical thin film coatings

Using semiconductor and oxide layers with an approximate wavelength range of between 300 nm and 20 microns, Diamond Coatings supply an extensive range of special thin film optical coatings within the visible & infra-red (IR) regions of the light spectrum.

Available on a diversity of optical polymers, glasses and sapphire, our special optical coatings can be supplied in visible, near-IR and IR wavelength ranges and include, for example:

• Highly efficient anti-reflection coatings (broadband multi-layer AR & V coats) with reflections below 0.5%
• Beam splitters providing varying transmission/reflection value ranges such as, for instance, 70/30 or 50/50 (+/- 1.5%)
• Front surface mirrors providing reflections exceeding 99%
• Hot mirrors (IR blocking filters)
• Edge, bandpass & narrow band filters

Providing average reflectance below 0.5% over a broad wavelength range (UV, visible & IR regions), our broadband multi-layer AR coatings can be designed for a diversity of substrates, incidence angles, wavelengths and performances. Our capabilities also extend to the design of dual-band AR coatings.

Typically used within applications involving specific laser wavelengths, our V coat anti-reflective coatings can be produced for diverse incidence angles. At single wavelengths, it is possible to achieve reflections below 0.1%.

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Please contact our technical experts today for more detailed information on different types of special optical coating and/or discuss your specific application’s exact requirements.