Optical component having a low-density silicon oxide layer as the outermost layer of an inorganic thin-film, method of manufacturing optical component and electronic apparatus

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9134462-B2
Application number	US-90017410-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Oct 7, 2010
Priority date	Oct 9, 2009
Publication date	Sep 15, 2015
Grant date	Sep 15, 2015

Abstract

An optical component includes: a multilayer inorganic thin-film on a substrate, wherein the inorganic thin-film is formed by laminating a plurality of layers made of silicon oxide and a plurality of layers made of metal oxide, the metal oxide is metal oxide containing any one of zirconium, tantalum, and titanium, the layers made of silicon oxide include a low-density silicon oxide layer and a high-density silicon oxide layer having a density higher than the low-density silicon oxide layer, the outermost layer of the inorganic thin-film is the low-density silicon oxide layer, and the surface roughness of the outermost layer of the inorganic thin-film is equal to or greater than 0.55 nm and equal to or smaller than 0.7 nm.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. An optical component comprising:
a multilayer inorganic thin-film on a substrate,
wherein the inorganic thin-film is formed by laminating a plurality of layers made of silicon oxide and a plurality of layers made of metal oxide,
the metal oxide is metal oxide containing any one of zirconium, tantalum, and titanium,
the layers made of metal oxide include a low-density metal oxide layer and a high-density metal oxide layer having a density higher than the low-density metal oxide layer, at least one low-density metal oxide layer being between a high-density metal oxide layer and the substrate,
the high-density metal oxide layer being an outermost metal oxide layer and having the highest density of the metal oxide layers in the inorganic thin-film,
the layers made of silicon oxide include a low-density silicon oxide layer and a high-density silicon oxide layer having a density higher than the low-density silicon oxide layer,
the outermost layer of the inorganic thin-film is the low-density silicon oxide layer, and
the surface roughness of the outermost layer of the inorganic thin-film is equal to or greater than 0.55 nm and equal to or smaller than 0.7 nm.

2. The optical component according to claim 1 ,
wherein the layer of metal oxide near the outermost layer includes a layer of zirconium oxide, and
the surface roughness of the outermost layer of the inorganic thin-film is equal to or greater than 0.6 nm and equal to or smaller than 0.7 nm.

3. The optical component according to claim 2 ,
wherein the layers of zirconium oxide include a low-density zirconium oxide layer and a high-density zirconium oxide layer having a density higher than the low-density zirconium oxide layer, and at least a layer adjacent to the outermost layer of the inorganic thin-film is the high-density zirconium oxide layer.

4. The optical component according to claim 3 ,
wherein the low-density silicon oxide layer has a density equal to or higher than 2.00 g/cm 3 and equal to or lower than 2.20 g/cm 3 , and the low-density zirconium oxide layer has a density equal to or higher than 4.8 g/cm 3 and equal to or lower than 5.4 g/cm 3 .

5. The optical component according to claim 1 ,
wherein the layer of metal oxide near the outermost layer includes a layer of tantalum oxide, and
the surface roughness of the outermost layer of the inorganic thin-film is equal to or greater than 0.55 nm and equal to or smaller than 0.65 nm.

6. The optical component according to claim 5 ,
wherein the layers of tantalum oxide include a low-density tantalum oxide layer and a high-density tantalum oxide layer having a density higher than the low-density tantalum oxide layer, and at least a layer adjacent to the outermost layer of the inorganic thin-film is the high-density tantalum oxide layer.

7. The optical component according to claim 6 ,
wherein the low-density silicon oxide layer has a density equal to or higher than 2.00 g/cm 3 and equal to or lower than 2.15 g/cm 3 , and the low-density tantalum oxide layer has a density equal to or higher than 7.7 g/cm 3 and equal to or lower than 8.0 g/cm 3 .

8. The optical component according to claim 1 ,
wherein the layer of metal oxide near the outermost layer includes a layer of titanium oxide, and
the surface roughness of the outermost layer of the inorganic thin-film is equal to or greater than 0.6 nm and equal to or smaller than 0.7 nm.

9. The optical component according to claim 8 ,
wherein the layers of titanium oxide include a low-density titanium oxide layer and a high-density titanium oxide layer having a density higher than the low-density titanium oxide layer, and at least a layer adjacent to the outermost layer of the inorganic thin-film is the high-density titanium oxide layer.

10. The optical component according to claim 9 ,
wherein the low-density silicon oxide layer has a density equal to or higher than 2.00 g/cm 3 and equal to or lower than 2.15 g/cm 3 , and the low-density titanium oxide layer has a density equal to or higher than 4.50 g/cm 3 and equal to or lower than 4.75 g/cm 3 .

11. The optical component according to claim 1 ,
wherein the total thickness of the low-density silicon oxide layer and the low-density metal oxide layer is equal to or smaller than 500 nm.

12. The optical component according to claim 1 ,
wherein a fluorine-containing organic silicon compound film is formed on the surface of the outermost layer of the inorganic thin-film.

13. The optical component according to claim 2 ,
wherein the surface resistance of the inorganic thin-film is equal to or smaller than 3.1×10 10 Ω/and equal to or greater than 9.1×10 9 Ω/.

14. The optical component according to claim 5 ,
wherein the surface resistance of the inorganic thin-film is equal to or smaller than 1.4×10 11 Ω/and equal to or greater than 7.7×10 9 Ω/.

15. The optical component according to claim 8 ,
wherein the surface resistance of the inorganic thin-film is equal to or smaller than 1.4×10 11 Ω/and equal to or greater than 5.7×10 10 Ω/.

16. A method of manufacturing the optical component according to claim 1 , the method comprising:
forming at least the outermost layer of the inorganic thin-film through ion-assisted electron beam deposition with assist power having an acceleration voltage equal to or greater than 300 V and equal to or smaller than 450 V.

17. The method according to claim 16 ,
wherein the plurality of layers are five or more layers, and at least four adjacent layers including the outermost layer from among the layers are formed through the ion-assisted electron beam deposition with assist power.

18. An electronic apparatus comprising:
the optical component according to claim 1 ; and
a case which accommodates the optical component,
wherein the optical component is an IR-UV cut filter, and an imaging element is arranged to be opposite the IR-UV cut filter.

19. An electronic apparatus comprising:
the optical component according to claim 1 ; and
a case which accommodates the optical component,
wherein the optical component has an anti-reflection film and is arranged in an optical path between a laser light source and an objective lens opposite an optical disk.

20. An electronic apparatus comprising:
the optical component according to claim 1 ; and
a case which accommodates the optical component,
wherein the optical component has an anti-reflection film and is arranged in an optical path between a light source and a dichroic prism.

21. The optical component according to claim 1 , wherein the outermost layer of the inorganic thin-film is a layer of the inorganic thin-film that is farthest from the substrate.

Assignees

• Furusato Daiki
• Seiko Epson Corp

Inventors

• Furusato Daiki

Classifications

• G02B1/18

  Coatings for keeping optical surfaces clean, e.g. hydrophobic or photo-catalytic films (G02B1/16 takes precedence) · CPC title

• G02B1/16

  having an anti-static effect, e.g. electrically conducting coatings · CPC title

• G02B1/115 Primary

  Multilayers · CPC title

• G02B1/116

  including electrically conducting layers · CPC title