Shanghai Optics

17 Mar.,2023

 

Different Types of Optical Domes

Infrared optical domes are important for defense applications, and here sapphire is often the material of choice. Aside from diamond, sapphire is the hardest natural substance, and it is resistant to scratching and abrasion. It is also capable of withstanding high pressure, and transmits eighty percent of light between the 2-5µm wavelength range.Other options for infrared domes are zinc selenide, germanium, calcium fluorite, zinc sulfide, and silicon.

Silicon has primary transmission in the3-5μm range, and has low density and high thermal conductivity.  It is the most budget friendly in our lineup of IR materials.

Zinc Selenide domes have a broad wavelength length, from 3 µm to 16 µm, but ZnSe is softer than most other commonly used IR substrates and thus should not be used in harsh environments. It also a high index of refraction, but with an AR coating can achieve high transmission.  It is a good choice for thermally demanding environments.

Our Germanium IR domes have a transmission range of 2-14 μm. They are durable, and although they are not as hard as sapphire, we can provide diamond AR coatings (hard carbon or DLC) to provide optimal resistance to harsh environments.

Our Polycrystalline Zinc Sulfide domes are hotpressed under vacuum, and provide multispectral transmission—an average of 70 % from 3-5µm and 8-12µm. This hotpressed zinc has good thermal properties, and a AR/AR coating can improve transmission.  The manufacturing process allows us to customize dome shape and size, and enables us to manufacture larger domes or domes with various curvature radius.

MgF2 translucent ceramic domes are also hot pressed, and these domes exhibit high transmission between 2-7.5mm. They are often used for missiles and launch tubes because of their high knoophardness and a flexural strength rating of 20,000 psi.

On all our domes we are able to provide anti-reflection coatings. These coatings can provide better transmission of light and hence can greatly improveimagery. For harsh environments where optical transmission is secondary to robustness we can provide specialized coatings to improve durability.

IR Transmissive Dome Applications:

1. Security technology & Defense
2. Half-space Observation
3. Head Protection Optics
4. Infrared Missle Domes

With special high resistant and high anti-reflective coatings, Optical domes are used for security and defense applications to guard active optical systems.

Please contact us for assistance with:
1. Geometric design with high precision.
2. Coating design (High resistant and high anti-reflective).
3. Special adapter interface surface design with the mechanical mount.
4. Manufacturing with tight tolerance.

All components are thoroughly tested for compliance with DIN, ISO and MIL standard requirements.