Plasma Quest Ltd has developed a wide range of coating materials suitable for use in optical filters using the proprietary HiTUS thin film sputter deposition equipment.
Optical filters are typically components with either a wavelength-dependent transmission or a wavelength-dependent reflectivity. The simplest optical filter is the absorptive filter, where select wavelengths of light are absorbed and the rest transmitted. More complex interference filters exhibit wavelength-dependent reflection and transmission. Dielectric and dichroic mirrors are examples of interference based filters. The mirrors usually consist of alternating thin layers of two transparent dielectric materials.
A wide range of dielectric films can be reactively sputtered at high rates (e.g. SiO2 > 55nm/min from a 4” target) using the HiTUS thin film sputter deposition equipment. The high level of densification produces thin films with very little argon inclusion (<1%), very smooth interfaces between layers and refractive indices close to bulk. Materials include SiO2, Al2O3, TiO2, Nb2O5, Ta2O5.
PQL’s system allows accurate deposition of optical filters consisting of multi-layer stacks. The HiTUS system uses a multiple-target holder which provides the capability to repeatedly and reliably deposit identical alternating layers of differing materials, without having to break the vacuum. Coupled with a menu driven PLC, one-touch batch process control is easily achieved.
- Film properties are maintained at varied deposition rates
- The process is very stable and is repeatable run to run
- Dielectrics are reactively sputtered from metallic targets in most cases, leading to the densification of the deposited films
- Expensive feedback control is not necessary.
- Very smooth interfaces
If a material can be sputter deposited, it can be coated using the Plasma Quest approach. Please
Contact Us for a discussion about how our coating service can solve your problems. We look forward to speaking with you.
