ARO Sets New Damage Threshold With NIF High Reflectors

Boulder, CO -- Highly reflective coated optics supplied by Alpine Research Optics (ARO) for the National Ignition Facility (NIF) project have been independently qualified by SPICA Technologies, Inc. to a damage resistance that is five times the industry standard. Specifically, these optics were tested and certified to withstand 47 J/cm² at a wavelength of 1.06 microns, with a pulse duration of 3.5 nsec. This far exceeds the original NIF specification of 30 J/cm². These high reflectors deliver >99.75% reflectivity at 45° incidence at the requisite polarization.

David Collier, President of ARO, notes that, "We're extremely proud of this milestone achievement. While ARO is widely known for our long-lived ultraviolet optics for the microlithography and LASIK markets, these high performance near-infrared optics show that our innovative thin films can deliver tangible advantages across the entire spectrum of demanding laser wavelengths and applications. Most notably, these optics are coated using our trademarked Wavefront Control Optics™ process which is uniquely optimized to compensate for the specific thermo-mechanical stress and humidity issues found in the target application."

For more information visit http://www.arocorp.com.

Source: Alpine Research Optics