Antireflective Optical Coatings
At ITO Coatings we use Indium Tin Oxide (ITO) as a thin coating for optical components, allowing us to alter how they transmit and reflect light. This includes antireflective optical coatings.
ITO can be vacuum deposited onto glass & plastic (acrylic, polycarbonate and polyester) substrates adding an element of conductivity, whilst maintaining optical clarity.
Antireflective Optical Coatings
An antireflective or anti-reflection (AR) coating is a type of optical coating applied to the surface of lenses and other optical elements to reduce reflection.
This helps to improve the efficiency as less light is lost due to reflection in typical imaging systems. In complex systems such as telescopes and microscopes the reduction in reflections also improves the contrast of the image by elimination of stray light when using anti reflective coatings.
In other applications, the main benefit of using anti reflective optical coatings is the elimination of the reflection itself, such as a coating on eye glass lenses that makes the eyes of the wearer more visible to other people.
Applications of Optical Coatings
- Beam splitters, often used in fluorescence microscopy
- Front surface mirrors
- Infra-red blocking filters (hot mirrors)
- Bandpass and edge filters
Edge Filters
Edge filters can be used to reflect one portion of an incident spectrum and transmit another. Edge filters can be used as:
Cold mirrors, which transmit the infra-red portion and reflect the visible one
Hot mirrors, which transmit the visible portion and reflect the infra-red one. Hot mirrors are often used in the automotive industry. Early digital cameras were often sensitive to infrared radiation, producing contaminated colours. Insertion of a photographic hot mirror filter into the imaging pathway resolved this problem.
Depending on specific deposition process and design, our AR coatings typically meet all cosmetic and durability requirements of MIL-C-675, MIL-M-13508 and other common optical specifications.
For more information, contact us today on (480) 999-3456 or e-mail us at: sales@diamondcoatings.com
