Extra sensitive optics have always had to be used – however reluctantly – without an AR coating because the coating process negatively affects their optical properties; for example, the material can become discolored when coating Grin lenses due to the process temperature. The altered material properties can, in a worst case scenario, lead to a malfunction.
Ion beam sputtering (IBS) coatings open up new possibilities at process temperatures below 100°C. LASER COMPONENTS offers broadband coatings for temperature-sensitive optics. In the case of Grin lenses, it is possible to achieve reflections of < 1.5% on average across a wavelength range of 400-1,000 nm in coatings. This allows a large wavelength bandwidth & large differences in the angle of incidence to be compensated.
