Sol-gel metal oxide and metal oxide/polymer multilayers applied by meniscus coating.

摘要

We are developing a meniscus coating process for manufacturing large-aperture dielectric multilayer high reflectors (HR's) at ambient conditions from liquid suspensions. Using a lab-scale coater capable of coating 150 mm square substrates, we have produced several HR's which give 99% + reflection with 24 layers and with edge effects confined to about 10 mm. In calendar 1993 we are taking delivery of an automated meniscus coating machine capable of coating substrates up to 400 mm wide and 600 mm long. The laser-damage threshold and failure stress of sol-gel thin films can be substantially increased through the use of soluble polymers which act as binders for the metal oxide particles comprising the deposited film. Refractive index control of the film is also possible through varying the polymer/oxide ratio. Much of our present effort present is in optimizing oxide particle/binder/solvent formulations for the high-index material. Films from colloidal zirconia strengthened with polyvinylpyrollidone (PVP) have given best results to date. An increase in the laser damage threshold (LDT) for single layers has been shown to significantly increase with increased polymer loading, but as yet the LDT for multilayer stacks remains low.