asphericon expands service portfolio of coating services with sputter technology
Jena, December 2018: asphericon, one of the world’s leading suppliers of aspheric high-performance optics and systems, is responding to the growing demand for customized photonics solutions. The introduction of a new coating technology can cover these advanced customer requirements and increase the flexibility of the product range.
The new coating technology is a magnetron sputtering (MS) system. The solution represents the latest state of the art and underlines asphericon’s claim to be able to offer customers a comprehensive range of first-class optical solutions for a wide variety of applications.
In contrast to alternative evaporation technologies, sputtering enables the production of very hard as well as climatically and mechanically resistant coating systems. In the spectral range from 380 nm – 5100 nm customer-specific optics up to a diameter of 250 mm made of glass, quartz or crystals can be coated.
The MS system is equipped with spectroscopic monitoring. Even complex layer designs can be produced reliably and reproducibly on this basis. Separately loadable magazine airlocks also ensure high throughput and continuous operation.
MS technology is used for demanding laser applications where low scattering, high reflection and laser destruction thresholds play a role. Coatings for extreme environmental conditions, such as harsh environments with high temperature fluctuations, can also be realized. In addition, the process is also suitable for high-quality filter layers, HR layers and broadband anti-reflective coatings.
Sven R. Kiontke, Technical Director of asphericon GmbH, explains: “The new technology is another puzzle stone in terms of quality, service and depth of added value. We support our customers in the implementation of challenging, high quality projects as well as in the reduction of delivery times”.
With regard to the coating quality, the MS technology is also convincing, achieving very good homogeneity values of +/-0.25% (flat substrate, dia 200 mm). The residual reflection of an AR coating is reported to be up to Rabs<0.05%. A specification of up to >/=99.98% can be achieved for laser line mirrors.
We would be pleased to advise you in detail on the subject of coatings. Please do not hesitate to contact us at any time!
