G.G. Pethuraja, R.E. Welser, A.K. Sood, H. Efstathiadis, P. Haldar, E.A. DeCuir, P.S. Wijewarnasuriya, N.K. Dhar
Magnolia Optical Technologies, Inc.,
United States
Keywords: nanostructured layers, antireflection structure, optical coatings, EOIR Sensors
Summary:
Electro-optic infrared (EOIR) technologies and systems operating from ultraviolet (UV) to long-wave infrared (LWIR) spectrum are being developed for a variety of defense and commercial systems applications. Reflection loss of a significant portion of the incident signal limits the performance of EOIR sensing systems. One of the critical technologies that will overcome this limitation and enhance the performance of image sensing systems is the development of advanced antireflection (AR) coatings. Magnolia is actively working on the development and advancement of ultra-high performance AR coatings for a wide variety of defense and commercial applications. Ultrahigh performance nanostructured AR coatings have been demonstrated for UV to LWIR spectral bands on various substrates. The AR coatings enhance the optical transmission through optical components and devices by significantly minimizing reflection losses, a substantial improvement over conventional thin-film AR coating technologies. Nanostructured AR coatings are fabricated using a tunable self-assembly process on substrates that are transparent for a given spectrum of interest ranging from UV to LWIR. The nanostructured multi-layer structures have been designed, developed and optimized for various optical electronic applications. The optical properties of AR coated optical components and sensor substrates have been measured and fine-tuned to achieve a predicted high level of performance of the coatings. In this conference, we review our latest work on high quality nanostructure-based AR coatings, including recent efforts on the development of nanostructured AR coatings on IR substrates.