Semrock Wins Circle of Excellence Award

Using the latest advances in thin-film filter technology, Semrock Inc. of Rochester, N.Y., has combined its modern ion-beam sputtering, sophisticated designs and proprietary deposition control techniques to produce a single laser-grade mirror that achieves high reflectivity for all polarizations and a wide range of incident angles over a broad wavelength spectrum. The MaxMirror has a low-scattering, durable, all-dielectric hard coating with a high laser damage threshold.

It achieves 99 percent reflectivity for all polarization states in the UV, the visible and the near-IR wavelengths -- from 350 to 1100 nm -- and high reflectivity for angles of incidence from 0° to 50°. The standard configuration is a 1-in.-diameter, 3/8-in.-thick substrate with a laser-quality 20-10 scratch/dig surface finish and λ /10 surface flatness at 633 nm. The mirror is rated for laser damage thresholds in excess of 1 J/cm² with laser pulses of approximately 10 ns, and for 2 J/cm² at 1064 nm.

Applications include laser systems that utilize many lines, including Nd:YAG systems operating at 1064, 532 and 355 nm, and Ti:sapphire-laser-based analytical systems such as confocal microscopes that use excitation of higher harmonics or multiphoton fluorescence in the visible and the near-UV. The company says that the mirror enables both efficient delivery of the excitation light to and from the sample, and collection of the signal light.