Energetic process development in the production of optical coatings has progressed significantly over the last two decades, permitting the practitioner of thin film coating depositions a wide choice of deposition parameters. Primarily, a series of important advances has occurred in the nearly ubiquitous use of Ion Assisted Deposition (IAD) for the production of high performance optical coatings. Progressing from the rudimentary use of ionized gas technology for pre-cleaning substrates, to the advanced IAD produced telecom filters (DWDM), energetic processes now play a vital role in most optical coating production. The advances in IAD technology culminate in the development of stable and durable thin films for a wide variety of stringent spectral specifications from the UV to the Far IR. The technical progression from IAD use in either sputtered or physical vapor deposition (PVD) processes to the development of Ion-Assisted Filtered Cathodic Arc Deposition (IFCAD) technology for applications from temperature-sensitive optics to future space coatings will be discussed.

Date Published: 29 September 2004
PDF: 10 pages
Proc. SPIE 5527, Advances in Thin Film Coatings for Optical Applications, (29 September 2004); doi: 10.1117/12.555418

Published in SPIE Proceedings Vol. 5527:
Advances in Thin Film Coatings for Optical Applications
Jennifer D. T. Kruschwitz; James B. Oliver, Editor(s)