In optics, optical mirrors are optic devices that are built to reflect light. These mirrors come in different configurations ranging from flat to curved mirrors which can either be a concave or convex mirror. Optical mirror coating is one or more layers of coating agent that is used to cover an optical surface which has an effect on the object transmitting or reflecting light. The coat can either be an anti-reflective coating, which reduces unwanted reflections from surfaces and is commonly used on spectacle and camera lenses, the high-reflector coating, which can be used to produce mirrors that reflect greater than 99.99% of the light that falls on them. Some complex Optical coating exists and these coatings exhibit a high reflection rate over some range of wavelengths, and anti-reflection over another range, allowing the production of dichroic thin-film filters. Mainly coated optical mirrors are coated with Optical metals like thin layers of metals, such as aluminum, which are deposited on glass substrates to make mirror surfaces, a process known as silvering. The type of metal that is used for the coating determines the pattern of reflection for instance when aluminum or is used to cost an optical surface, it yields reflectivity of about 88 – 92 %, but silver gives a better reflectivity.
Types Of Optical Mirror Coating
Dielectric Coating
This coating is obtained using materials like magnesium fluoride, or calcium fluoride which have a different refractive index to the substrate.
Antireflection Coating
Antireflection or antireflective coating as the case may be is an optical coating method that is used on optical surfaces or devices to reduce reflection. When light traveling through a medium enters a sheet of glass after traveling through the air, some portion of the light is reflected from the surface and this is known as the interface between the two media. At Alpine research optics you have access to the best devices for polarization in optics.
Transparent Conductive Coating
Transparent Conductive coating is a coating method used when high visible light transmission and electrical conductivity are desired. They offer good thermal stability as well. This coating is used mainly when it is important that the coating conduct electricity or dissipate static charge thereby in turn protecting the aperture from electromagnetic Interference. This coating has a reproducible batch-to-batch performance and gives printable scree. They have high transmission over a broad range of sheet resistance and can be tuned for electrical conductivity. They are compatible with flexible and glass substrates.
Extreme Ultraviolet Coatings
In an extreme ultraviolet spectrum, it is difficult to focus or manipulate light at its wavelength of less than 30nm because all materials absorb strangely. The principle of EUV is applicable in a telescope which forms an image with EUV light using a set of multilayer mirrors that are constructed of hundreds of alternating layers of a high-mass metal such as molybdenum or tungsten, and a low-mass spacer such as silicon, vacuum deposited onto a substrate such as glass, and each of the pair is designed to have a thickness that is equal to the half of the wavelength of light to be reflected.
High-Reflection Coatings
High-reflection coating is designed to minimize loss while reflecting lasers and other light sources. They are used in common laser optics applications such as folding a laser’s beam splitters including boulder path and laser cavity end mirrors.