Methods of forming optical system components and optical coatings

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10131571-B2
Application number	US-201715593961-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	May 12, 2017
Priority date	Sep 8, 2015
Publication date	Nov 20, 2018
Grant date	Nov 20, 2018

Abstract

A method of forming an optical coating, including the steps: depositing a buffer layer on a glass substrate via plasma deposition at a first plasma bias voltage; and depositing at least one layer of an optical coating on the buffer layer via plasma deposition, the deposition of the optical coating carried out at a second plasma bias voltage.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method of forming an optical system component, comprising the steps of:
depositing a first portion of a first layer of an optical coating via plasma deposition on a glass substrate at a first plasma bias voltage, wherein the glass substrate comprises one or more fluorides and the first portion has a thickness from about 5 nm to about 10 nm and the overall thickness of the first layer is greater than about 20 nm;
depositing a second portion of the first layer of the optical coating via plasma deposition on the first portion at a second plasma bias voltage, wherein the second plasma bias voltage is greater than the first plasma bias voltage; and
depositing a second layer of the optical coating on the first layer.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein a thermal damage threshold of the glass substrate is less than about 500° C.

3. The method of claim 2 , wherein the first plasma bias voltage is between about 50 V and about 90 V.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein the first layer comprises a material having a refractive index greater than about 2.0.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein the first portion of the first layer has a packing density of about 90% or greater.

6. The method of claim 5 , wherein the first portion and second portion of the first layer comprise a same dielectric material.

7. The method of claim 1 , wherein the optical coating comprises layers of alternating dielectric materials, the first layer comprising at least one of Ta 2 O 5 , Nb 2 O 5 , TiO 2 , and HfO 2 , and the second layer comprising SiO 2 .

8. The method of claim 1 , wherein the glass substrate with the optical coating has a transmittance loss of the electromagnetic radiation of less than about 0.1% over an electromagnetic wavelength of about 350 nm to about 800 nm.

9. A method of forming an optical coating, comprising the steps:
providing a glass substrate;
depositing a buffer layer on the substrate via plasma deposition at a first plasma bias voltage; and
depositing at least one layer of an optical coating on the buffer layer via plasma deposition, the deposition of the optical coating carried out at a second plasma bias voltage,
wherein the second plasma bias voltage is greater than the first plasma bias voltage and the buffer layer has a packing density greater than about 94%.

10. The method of forming an optical coating of claim 9 , wherein the first plasma bias voltage ranges from about 50 V to about 90 V and the second plasma bias voltage ranges from about 100 V to about 140 V.

11. The method of forming an optical coating of claim 10 , wherein the glass substrate comprises at least one fluoride.

12. The method of forming an optical coating of claim 11 , wherein at least one of the buffer layer and the optical coating layers has a non-uniform thickness across the glass substrate.

13. The method of forming an optical coating of claim 12 , wherein the buffer layer and the at least one layer of the optical coating comprise the same material.

14. A method of forming an optical system component, comprising the steps:
depositing a buffer layer on a substrate comprising glass, wherein the buffer layer is deposited via plasma deposition at a first plasma bias voltage; and
depositing at least one layer of an optical coating on the buffer layer via plasma deposition, the deposition of the optical coating carried out at a second plasma bias voltage,
wherein the buffer layer has a packing density of about 94% or greater.

15. The method of forming an optical system component of claim 14 , wherein at least one of the buffer layer and the optical coating has a non-uniform thickness across the substrate.

16. The method of forming an optical system component of claim 14 , wherein the buffer layer and the at least one layer of the optical coating comprise the same material.

17. The method of forming an optical system component of claim 14 , wherein the substrate comprises one or more fluorides and the buffer layer has a thickness between about 5 nm and about 10 nm.

18. The method of forming an optical system component of claim 14 , wherein the first plasma bias voltage is between about 50 V and about 90 V.

19. The method of forming an optical system component of claim 14 , wherein the optical coating comprises at least one of Ta 2 O 5 , Nb 2 O 5 , TiO 2 , and HfO 2 .

Assignees

• Corning Inc

Inventors

• Oudard Jean-Francois
• Platten James Edward
• Wang Jue

Classifications

• C03C2218/153

  by plasma-enhanced cvd · CPC title

• C03C2217/213

  SiO2 · CPC title

• C03C2217/734

  comprising an alternation of high and low refractive indexes · CPC title

• G02B1/115

  Multilayers · CPC title

• C03C17/245

  by deposition from the vapour phase · CPC title