Mirrors White Papers and Case Studies

  1. Practical Aspects Of Mirror Usage In Optical Systems For Biology 12/28/2023

    Gain practical and useful insight on flat dielectric mirrors including key design considerations and specifications necessary for selecting the appropriate flat mirror.

  2. Highly-Dispersive Mirrors 10/3/2022

    The positive chirp introduced by most optical media in ultrafast systems can be compensated for using optical components, such as highly-dispersive mirrors, that feature negative dispersion.

  3. Utilizing Fluorescence Filters For Microscopy And Imaging 6/17/2020

    Because image quality is highly dependent on the design and overall performance of the fluorescence filters integrated into microscope and imaging systems, optical filter performance is just as important to the final image as sample preparation and fluorophore selection.

  4. White Paper: The Challenge Of Manufacturing Large Mirrors 4/29/2020

    Large mirrors are a critical aspect of numerous optical systems and are used in a wide variety of important applications. For the production of high performance large mirrors, optical manufacturers are tasked with the challenge of meeting a strict set of requirements.

  5. Specifying Wavefront Or Surface Error In Aspheres 5/12/2016

    The optical quality of aspheric mirrors is commonly specified by their surface accuracy and reflected wavefront error. The surface error is the deviation of the surface from its perfect form, while the wavefront error is the deviation of the resulting reflected or transmitted wavefront from its perfect shape. It is often assumed that these tolerances are related to each other by a simple scale factor. However, that is not the case when it comes to aspheric mirrors. This application note compares surface accuracy measurements with wavefront error measurements, and provides an application example on using them in off-axis parabolas.

  6. Edmund Optics' Metallic Mirror Coatings 4/1/2016

    Edmund Optics offers a large variety of precision parabolic, spherical, and flat mirrors with an array of metallic and dielectric coatings to suit all application requirements in different regions of the spectrum. Standard metallic mirror coatings include protected aluminum, enhanced aluminum, UV enhanced aluminum, DUV enhanced aluminum, bare gold, protected gold, and protected silver. This application note introduces their first and second surface mirrors, enhanced metal coatings, and available custom coatings.

  7. First Surface Mirrors 2/8/2016

    Conventional mirrors are constructed with a glass protective surface and a “silvering” second surface. In high-precision applications, these second surface mirrors have distinct disadvantages such as refracted or bent images, loss of energy, and a dim and distorted reflection.

  8. BOROFLOAT & Optical Mirrors: A Union of Inspiration & Quality 6/19/2015

    This white paper introduces BOROFLOAT, the world’s first borosilicate glass by SCHOTT, explains how it is used in the Hobby Eberly Telescope (HET) and describes its exceptional optical and thermal properties.

  9. Care and Use of UV Laser Mirrors 1/9/2015

    This application note provides a guideline for the caring for and cleaning of UV laser mirrors.

  10. Specialized Thin Film Optical Mirrors Enable VIRUS Spectrograph System In Dark Energy Experiment 8/15/2011

    PG&O designed and delivered specialized optical mirrors to Texas A&M University and the University of Texas at Austin for use in building the first-of-its-kind VIRUS (Visible Integral-field Replicable Unit Spectrograph) instrument, a key part of the Hobby-Eberly Telescope Dark Energy Experiment, or HETDEX.