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The impact of the mass density on selected optical and non-optical properties of oxide coatings

  • Olaf Stenzel finished his diploma thesis in laser spectroscopy at the physics department of Moscow State University, Russia, in 1986. He received his PhD from Chemnitz University of Technology, Germany, in 1990 and habilitated there in 1999 in the field of optical properties of heterogeneous optical coatings. From 2001, he has worked at the Optical Coating Department of Fraunhofer Institute for Applied Optics and Precision Engineering IOF in Jena, Germany. He is the author of The Physics of Thin Film Optical Spectra: An Introduction, (Springer 2005).

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Published/Copyright: July 4, 2013
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Advanced Optical Technologies
From the journal Advanced Optical Technologies Volume 3 Issue 1

Abstract

The density of optical coatings is one of the most crucial material-related parameters in interference coating science and technology. It has an impact on the refractive index, the transparency range, and the mechanical stress of a coating material. This tutorial provides a background on the classical theory relating the coating density to the mentioned parameters. Simple models are presented that highlight the correlations between optical constants, stress, and shifting behavior of different oxide coatings. Comparison with the experiment is performed on the basis of numerous experimental data, which stem from hafnium oxide, zirconium oxide, tantalum pentoxide, and silicon dioxide.

Keywords: absorption edge; density; mechanical stress; oxide coatings; refractive index; shift; OCIS codes: 310.6860; 310.6870; 310.1620
Corresponding author: Olaf Stenzel, Fraunhofer IOF Jena, Albert-Einstein-Str. 7, 07745 Jena, Germany, e-mail:

About the author

Olaf Stenzel

Olaf Stenzel finished his diploma thesis in laser spectroscopy at the physics department of Moscow State University, Russia, in 1986. He received his PhD from Chemnitz University of Technology, Germany, in 1990 and habilitated there in 1999 in the field of optical properties of heterogeneous optical coatings. From 2001, he has worked at the Optical Coating Department of Fraunhofer Institute for Applied Optics and Precision Engineering IOF in Jena, Germany. He is the author of The Physics of Thin Film Optical Spectra: An Introduction, (Springer 2005).

The author would like to thank Prof. Angus Macleod for the invitation to contribute this tutorial to this special issue of Advanced Optical Technologies. It appeared straightforward to give a survey on simple classical models, but as soon as any practically relevant theory is to be supported or falsified by experimental data, it appeared necessary to complete the text with comprehensive experimental material. The latter had been collected over the latest decade by many of my colleagues and collaborators, and it is impossible to mention all of them here. Instead, I would like to express my thanks en masse to the consortia of the projects IntIon, nanomorph, TACo, TAILOR, and PluTO, and to acknowledge the support by the sponsoring ministries – the BMWi, the BMWA, and the BMBF in Germany. More concrete data on the collaborators and companies/institutions are found in the author lists and acknowledgments of the cited references. Technical assistance in the figure and manuscript preparation has been provided by Josephine Wolf and Steffen Wilbrandt (both IOF in Jena). The TEM images from Figure 9 was supplied by Prof. Ute Kaiser, Ulm University, Germany.

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Received: 2013-5-16
Accepted: 2013-5-22
Published Online: 2013-7-4
Published in Print: 2014-2-1

©2014 by THOSS Media & De Gruyter Berlin Boston

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  2. Editorial
  3. Recognition of last year’s reviewers and new plans for 2014
  4. Community
  5. News from the European Optical Society
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  7. Conference Calendar
  8. Topical Issue: Optical Coatings
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https://doi.org/10.1515/aot-2013-0023
Keywords for this article
absorption edge; density; mechanical stress; oxide coatings; refractive index; shift; OCIS codes: 310.6860; 310.6870; 310.1620

Articles in the same Issue

  1. Cover and Frontmatter
  2. Editorial
  3. Recognition of last year’s reviewers and new plans for 2014
  4. Community
  5. News from the European Optical Society
  6. Conference Notes
  7. Conference Calendar
  8. Topical Issue: Optical Coatings
  9. Editorial
  10. Special issue on optical coatings
  11. Tutorials
  12. Optical coatings for energy-efficient fenestration: principles, products and prospects
  13. Coating processes for plastic optics
  14. The impact of the mass density on selected optical and non-optical properties of oxide coatings
  15. Review Articles
  16. Dispersive mirror technology for ultrafast lasers in the range 220–4500 nm
  17. Defect-related properties of optical coatings
  18. Research Articles
  19. Optical properties of unprotected and protected sputtered silver films: Surface morphology vs. UV/VIS reflectance
  20. ZnO:Al films prepared by inline DC magnetron sputtering
  21. Light scattering of interference coatings from the IR to the EUV spectral regions
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