Color has been associated with thin films of materials for longer than we know, but, although the effect was known and observed, it was not fully understood until comparatively recently. It was the 19th Century before the interfer

The basic form of a mirror as a cast metal object, with a highly polished reflective surface and relief decorations at the back, has remained unchanged throughout most of China’s history. The earliest known Chinese mirrors date ba

Different approaches to the design of dispersive mirrors (DMs) for ultrafast applications are considered. High efficiency and good quality of solutions are achieved due to a completely analytical approach to the computations of al

Three types of dispersion mirrors are designed and discussed. The first type is the complementary chirpedmirror pair used for providing smooth group delay dispersion (GDD) in the wavelength range of 550-1050 nm. Such mirrors are o

Multilayer dielectric thin films have polarization effects at non-normal incidence. In this letter, specifications include s- and p-polarization transmittance (Ts,(p) ≥ 95% at 790—808 nm), s- and p-polarization reflectance (Rs,(p)

A new design of shallow-etched multilayer dielectric grating (MDG) exhibiting a diffraction efficiency (DE) of approximately 100% in the –1st order at 1064-nm wavelength in Littrow mounting is reported. Particle swarm optimization

Color filters used in white light-emitting diode (LED) displays are composed of alternating high-index ZnS and metallic Ag layers. Such a filter has low polarization or angle effect. If this filter is used in the case of oblique i

Thin film optical coatings tailor light reflected or transmitted from an optical element in a desired way. An optical coating chamber is a complex system in which multiple subsystems operate together to fabricate such coatings. Fo

Current developments in optical multilayer design and computation make it possible to calculate filters that satisfy the most demanding optical specifications. Some of the designs are highly sensitive to manufacturing errors and r

A plasma source utilizing direct current (DC) voltage between an anode and a hot hollow cathode is employed to create high-density plasma. Plasma spatial distribution, ion energy, plasma neutralisation, and current densities are f

Atomic layer deposition (ALD) is under active research for its many emerging applications. In the optical field, ALD opens fundamentally new research paths, providing extreme conformality and capacity to engineer new materials. AL

The challenge in rapid production of high-precision optical coatings is the need to realize a variety of complex coating designs in one process environment. Two approaches to enhance a stable deposition process are presented. Firs

Optical coatings based on multilayers are prepared. The dependence of the refractive index of SiO2, TiO2, HfO2, and ZrO2 on the conditions during thin film evaporation (e.g., oxygen partial pressure, substrate temperature) and upo

For single layers of SiO2, Nb2O5, and Ta2O5 that are deposited by plasma-assisted reactive magnetron sputtering (PARMS), we present measurement results for basic optical and mechanical properties, in particular, optical index, int

Until now, there are few reports on the effect of process conditions on abrasion resistance, which is the most important mechanical property of optical films. Broadband antireflective (AR) films composed of SiO2and TiO2, whose ban

Al2O3 films are deposited using ion beam sputtering (IBS), ion beam reactive sputtering (IBRS), and electron beam evaporation (EBE). The properties of the films, such as optical identity, surface roughness, microstructures, and cr

High precision, single-wavelength optical monitoring of reflectance was shown to be useful in the study of initial oxidation of very thin metal films by low pressure oxygen at room temperature. Thin films of Al, Ni, and Hf metal w

Pure Ge is grown on Si substrate to control the release of the strain in the heterostructure, which is due to the 4.2% lattice misfit between Ge and Si. In this letter, an innovative approach of multi-buffer layers is proposed for

An optical feedback cavity ring-down technique (OF-CRD), in which the retro-reflection of the ring-down cavity (RDC) is re-injected into the oscillator cavity of a Fabry-Perot diode laser and causes the spectral fluctuation of the

A dispersive white-light spectral interferometer for precise measurements of the phase properties of multilayer thin film structures is built. A novel wavelet-based differentiation approach that considerably resists measurement er

An apparatus for localized transmittance measurements of optical coatings with spatially non-uniform performance is presented. The setup allows spectral acquisition in the range of 400–1000 nm with spatial resolution higher than 2

An explicit model from the matrix method is utilized to describe the measurement sensitivity of the photothermal detuning technique dependent on the polarization of the probe beam. Numerical results show that the optimal probe wav

A novel large-stage atomic force microscope (AFM) for nondestructive characterization of optical thin films is built. An open sample stage and a probe unit are employed to measure samples with large size and weight. Three optical

Spectroscopic imaging ellipsometry (SIE) is used to characterize a nanofilm pattern on a solid substrate. The combination of a xenon lamp, a monochromator, and collimating optics is utilized to provide a probe beam with diameter o

The current and potential applications of reststrahlen bands in optical surfaces and components are reviewed. This type of interval with metallic-like high reflectance has been used for monochromatization in infrared and when wave

New or optimized-mixed evaporation materials of PIZOLIN, ALVIRIT, ROMA, and TiO53[1] on the basis of high-index pure substances of TiO2, Nb2O5, CeO2, ZrO2, and Ta2O5 are developed with the aim of identifying dielectric materials w

Two chalcogenide films with composition Ge25-xSb10+xS65 (x=0, 10) and Te20As30Se50, called 2S1G and TAS, respectively, are studied. These materials have high linear and nonlinear refractive indices and present interesting photosen

Optical grade thick diamond films are polished on two sides by electron discharge machining (EDM) are with a mechanical method. The infrared transmittivities of Y2O3/diamond films are investigated in detail. Results indicate that

SnO2 thin films with good orientation are prepared on a glass substrate by radio frequence (RF) reactive sputtering. The phases of the thin films before and after annealing are analyzed by X-ray diffraction (XRD) spectroscopy, and

VOx films fabricated by direct currect (DC) magnetron sputtering using a high pure vanadium metal target (99.99%) are reported. The impact of the temperature coefficient of resistance (TCR), the effects of Ar/O2 ratio on the depos

Before going into the background of challenges imposed by modern laser technology on coated optical components, this letter reviews the major aspects of coating production and control. Current deposition techniques and characteris

We report on the development of highly dispersive mirrors for chirped-pulse oscillators (CPOs) and amplifiers (CPAs). Low-loss and alignment-insensitive all-dispersive-mirror compressors can take over the role of prisms and gratin

A high-energy broadband chirped mirror is designed for sub-10-fs high-energy chirped-pulse oscillators and amplification systems. This mirror consists of TiO2/SiO2 quarter-wave coatings for a broad bandwidth and optimized HfO2/SiO

The strong absorption of materials in the extreme ultraviolet (EUV) above ~50 nm has precluded the development of efficient coatings. The development of novel coatings with improved EUV performance is presented. An extensive resea

A recent development of mirrors is reviewed in this letter. For some applications, such as the hard X-ray telescope, polarization measurements in synchrotron radiation facilities, extreme ultraviolet (EUV) solar observations, and

Mo/Si and SiC/Mg period multilayer mirrors are investigated for solar He-II radiation at 30.4 nm. The optical stabilities of these multilayers are measured before and after space environment simulation tests for the purpose of pot

A fine layer structure in the Ni/C multilayer (3-4 nm/6-7 nm) is deposited by magnetic sputtering by combining soft X-ray resonant reflectivity curve at 4.48 nm and grazing incidence X-ray reflectivity (GIXR) curve at 0.14 nm. It

A multilayer Laue lens with a 15-nm outermost zone width is designed for an incident X-ray beam with an energy of 8 keV. WSi2/Si multilayer Laue lens with 324 layers and a total thickness of 7.9 \mu m is successfully fabricated us

A technology based on plasma etching has been developed to produce antireflective surface structures. By choosing thin initial layers and variable plasma conditions, a broad range of nanostructures can be obtained on various polym

Optical filters for the use in space instruments must not only satisfy the optical requirements but also contribute to the reduction of mass and size of the instrument itself. Moreover, they must survive in space conditions, speci

Silicon carbide (SiC) is a promising candidate for large-scale mirrors due to its high stiffness and thermal stability. However, it is very challenging to obtain a super smooth surface for high precision optical telescopes due to

An in situ process monitor for the CuInxGa1?xSe2 (copper indium gallium selenide) (CIGS) coating system is a very important tool that produces repeatable, high-quality CIGS coatings. This letter provides an overview of the current

The combination of fiber optics with nanostructure technologies offers great potential for the realization of novel sensor concepts. Miniature optical fiber sensors based on the Fabry-Perot (F-P) structure are presented. The trans

We propose and demonstrate two types of narrowband multi-channel filters: transmittance-integrated narrow-bandpass filter arrays and reflectance narrowband multi-channel filters. We develop a combinatorial etching technique posses

Advances in optical coating technology over the past decade have made it possible to produce high-performance Raman spectroscopy filters with better reliability and at lower costs. The performance and characteristics of three typi

Antistatic and antireflection (ASAR) coating using indium tin oxide (ITO) by magnetron reactive sputtering (MRS) technique is presented. The relationship between sheet resistance and optical transmittance of ITO prepared by MRS is

We focus on a more difficult kind of beam splitter in a cemented cube. The specification is that when the incident angle is 45°, the reflectivity in the visible range is 70%±2%, and the reflectivity at 1570 nm is not less than 90%

With the great development of laser standard systems and high-precision laser measurement systems, demands of optical systems have resulted in a dramatic increase in performance requirements for thin film optical filters. In this

A wet chemical etching process for lead zirconate titanate (PbZrxTi1?xO3 or PZT) thin films is reported. The influences of the etchant compositions, temperatures, and concentrations on the etching rate are studied, and the pattern

A new technique for rapid 3D microstructure preparation using micropipette is investigated. The tool electrode is made by Pt-Ir wire directly inserted into one or several glass micropipettes arrayed together. This electrode is use

In the process of silicon wet etching, the SiO2 film formed by thermal oxidation is firm and compact, and it is an excellent mask material. However, there are some difficulties in its patterning process. Considering the high densi

The critical technology for fabrication of the micro-bridge structure based on amorphous silicon (a-Si) films is studied. As a key technology in the fabrication of the micro-bridge structure, the sacrificial layer technology, incl

The Segall-Mahan theory is employed to calculate both one and two longitudinal-optical (LO) phonon sidebands of free excitons of zinc oxide (ZnO) in a wide temperature range. The energy spacing from the zero-phonon line to 1 LO an

We present the advantages of experimental design in the sensitivity analysis of optical coatings with a high number of layers by limited numbers of runs of the code. This methodology is effective in studying the uncertainties prop

Antireflection coatings are very important for high-efficiency solar cells. An ideal antireflection structure should lead to zero reflection loss on solar-cell surfaces over an extended solar spectral range for all angles of incid

Plasma ion-assisted deposition (PIAD) process for ultraviolet (UV)-induced transmission and full dielectric thin-film filters in the 200–400 nm spectral region is described. The design and manufacturing method of the UV filters ar

Total loss test of the high-reflective (HR) film coated on super-smooth silica substrate by dual ion beam sputtering (DIBS) is based on the well-established cavity ring-down technique. Scattering and transmittance are tested by in