Semrock, Inc.

Lucent Technologies Inc.

University of Rochester

Eastman-kodak Company

At+t Corp.

United States of America As Represented by the Administrator of Nasa

Fitel USA Corporation

At&t Laboratories, Limited

Turan Erdogan

Ligang Wang

Victor Mizrahi

Joseph T Foss

Craig W Hodgson

Prashant Prabhat

Glenn Clarke

Paul S Westbrook

Thomas Andrew Strasser

Clinton R Giles

Atul Pradhan

David B Stegall

Mark Earl Froggatt

Douglas Robert Robello

Dana Zachary Anderson

Samir Y Farid

Paul Joseph Lemaire

Donald Paul Monroe

Joseph P Dinnocenzo

Jay Anzellotti

Alan D Heaney

Robert James Beeson

Nicholas G Traggis

The present disclosure relates to thin film optical interference filters. The filters include a substrate and a plurality of alternating material layers deposited on the substrate. When operated at about 45&#xb0; angle of incidence, the filters exhibit at least one of improved polarization splitting, edge steepness, bandpass bandwidth, and blocking, relative to conventional thin film interference filters.

Interference filter for non-zero angle of incidence spectroscopy

An optical image splitter disposed in the path of image-bearing light along an optical axis has a coated dichroic surface disposed at an angle of 15 degrees or less relative to incident light along the optical axis. The coated dichroic surface has a number of layers of material, the of layers including layers having a first refractive index, n, and layers having a second refractive index, n, greater than the first refractive index. The coated surface transmits light of at least a first wavelength range to form a first image at an image plane and reflects light of a second wavelength range to form a second image at the image plane.

Dichroic image splitter

A method for forming an optical element deposits a first thin film coating to form a first coated surface on a first transparent substrate that is substantially flat, wherein, for incident light at an angle of incidence exceeding 5 degrees, the first multilayer thin film coating transmits a first wavelength band and reflects a second wavelength band. The first coated surface has a first surface form, and further has a second surface opposite the first coated surface with a second surface form. The second surface of the first substrate bonds to a third surface of a second transparent substrate to form the optical element. The third surface has a third surface form prior to bonding and the first coated surface has a fourth surface form after bonding. The difference between the fourth and the third surface forms is less than the difference between the first and third surface forms.

Dichroic filter conformed to optical surface

A dichroic beamsplitter has a composite prism that has at least first and second prism elements that are coupled together along facing surfaces, wherein the respective facing surfaces of the first and second prism elements are equidistant from each other. The composite prism has a first flat external surface that lies within a first plane, a second flat external surface that lies within a second plane that is perpendicular to the first plane, a third flat external surface that lies within a third plane that is parallel to the second plane, and a coated surface internal to the composite prism and having a multilayer thin-film dichroic beamsplitter coating, wherein the coated surface lies within a fourth plane that intersects at least one of the first, second, and third planes at an angle that is less than about 25 degrees.

Glass block dichroic beamsplitters

The present disclosure relates to thin film notch filters having the basic structure of an interference filter. In some embodiments, the filters according to the present disclosure exhibit at least one notch correlating to a pass band defect. The filters of the present disclosure may exhibit at least one of improved pass band bandwidth, improved edge steepness, narrower notch band FWHM, and lower sensitivity to material mismatch, relative to prior known thin film notch filters based on the basic structure of an interference filter. The present disclosure also relates to methods of making the filters described herein, and the use of these filters in optimal measurement systems.

Optical thin-film notch filter with very wide pass band regions

Optical filters and methods of making optical filters are provided. The optical filter can include a first and second stack of layers. The first stack of layers can be configured to provide a cut-on edge for s-polarized radiation incident at a second wavelength value and a cut-off edge for s-polarized radiation incident at a third wavelength value. The second stack of layers can be configured to provide a cut-off edge for s-polarized radiation incident on the second stack of layers at a fourth wavelength value. Further, the fourth wavelength value can lie between the second wavelength value and the third wavelength value. Furthermore, a curve or line of full-width half-maximum (FWHM) values of the optical filter pass-band can define a first derivative with respect to angle-of-incidence values at at least one angle-of-incidence value that is substantially positive or substantially zero.

Tunable band-pass filter

An optical element has layers formed on a substrate, including alternating first and second layers having first and second refractive indices, nand nthat exhibit a spectral characteristic, providing, for incident light at a predetermined wavelength and directed toward the optical element within a range of angles bounded by first and second incident angles &#x3b8;and &#x3b8;, between 0 and 80 degrees and differing by at least 1 degree, substantially linear polarization-averaged attenuation of the incident light energy wherein, for any incident angle &#x3b8;between &#x3b8;and &#x3b8;, A&#x3b8;is the corresponding polarization-averaged attenuation, and wherein the polarization-averaged attenuation at A&#x3b8;at angle &#x3b8;is less than or equal to an optical density value of 0.2 and the polarization-averaged attenuation A&#x3b8;at angle &#x3b8;exceeds an optical density value of 4.

Multilayer thin film attenuators

Optical components and their methods of manufacture are provided, including a first stack of layers configured to exhibit a first stop band for s-polarized radiation and a second stop band for p-polarized radiation incident on the first stack of layers at an oblique angle, a second stack of layers configured to exhibit a third stop band for s-polarized radiation and a fourth stop band for p-polarized radiation incident on the second stack of layers at the oblique angle, where the cut-on wavelength for the first stop band is approximately equal to or larger than the cut-off wavelength for the third stop band. Optical components are further provided to include extended blocking functionality, and to permit stress balancing in thin-film coatings on opposite sides of a substrate.

Optical thin-film polarizing bandpass filter

An optical filter is provided which includes a plurality of hard coating layers of alternating high and low refractive index provided on a substrate and has an associated first transmission band. The filter also includes at least one additional plurality of hard coating layers including high and low refractive index layers and Herpin equivalent layers sandwiched therebetween. The additional plurality of layers has an associated second transmission band that substantially coincides with the first transmission band, but provides additional blocking at wavelengths outside the first transmission band. Relatively wide transmission bands and high blocking over an extended range of wavelengths can be achieved such that the filter is suitable for use in multiphoton fluorescence systems.

Multiphoton fluorescence filters

An optical filter is provided, including a first plurality and second plurality of alternating first and second material layers, where the first plurality of layers is at a first angle to incident light and has a cut-on edge, and the second plurality of layers is at a second angle to the incident light and a cut-off edge; where polarization splitting of the first plurality of layers at the cut-on edge and polarization splitting of the second plurality of layers at the cut-off edge do not exceed approximately 1 percent for any first and second angle between approximately 0 and 40 degrees; and the s-stopband wavelength of the second plurality of layers is approximately less than or equal to the cut-on edge wavelength, which is less than the cut-off edge wavelength, which is approximately less than or equal to the s-stopband wavelength of the first plurality of layers.

Tunable thin-film filter

In accordance with the invention, a filter is fabricated to take into account the effect of absorption by filter material. The method is exemplified by the fabricating of an ultraviolet light transmission filter for transmitting a band within the range 230-320 nanometers. The resulting filter comprises plurality of hard-coating, thin-film layers of alternating high and low index of refraction. The improved filter provides high transmission, sharp edge slopes, and deep and extended out-of-band blocking. As compared with currently available filters, the filter provides transmission up to three or more times greater, edge slopes up to four times sharper, and deep extended out-of-band blocking extending further, even through the visible range.

Method for manufacturing an optical transmission filter with extended out-of-band blocking

A variable spectral filter apparatus has a filter support rotatable about a single axis of rotation and has at least first and second transmissive spectral filters, each spectral filter having a filter width defined by its first and second edges, wherein the filter width is orthogonal to the axis. The first edges of the filters are equidistant from the axis of rotation when the filter support is rotated to any angle. The plane of each of the spectral filters is parallel to the axis. Rotational positions of the filter support about the axis of rotation, over a first 60 degree range of angles, define, between the first and second edges of at least the first spectral filter, an undeviated filtered light path of at least half the filter width that extends orthogonally with respect to the axis. A rotational actuator is energizable to rotate the filter support about the axis.

Variable spectral filter apparatus

Consistent with the present disclosure, a filter is provided by depositing a coating a substrate. The coating, which may include a plurality of hard-coating layers, has an associated transmission characteristic having a passband, as well as extended blocking.

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Spencerport, NY, United States of America

Turan Erdogan