Corrosion Resistant Windows

Specifying Military Optical Coating Specifications

Learn more from the REO article on commonly encountered tradeoffs in thin film design for military coatings in order to help buyers establish a realistic set of specifications that deliver the necessary performance in the most cost-effective manner.

Ion Beam Sputtered Coatings (IBS)

REO pioneered the commercial use of IBS Coatings in the late 1980’s. With 22 IBS systems in operation today, REO is home to the world’s largest concentration of IBS optical coating technology. Our IBS technology produces thin films with exceptionally low scatter and absorption along with high mechanical and environmental durability. Utilizing primarily metal oxide materials, REO uses IBS to produce films which function from the UV through the Mid IR (up to 6um).

Flat Polishing

REO uses techniques such as continuous polishing and double-side polishing to produce optical surfaces of exceptional flatness. Double-side polishing is used to efficiently produce plane-parallel surfaces of up to 300mm diameter with typical flatness levels of approximately 20nm RMS per cm of diameter.

Continuous polishing consists of holding parts in a ring-lap configuration typically on a table made of pitch and is used to achieve much higher flatness levels, approximately 3nm rms per cm of diameter, on parts up to 250mm diameter.