Optical mirrors are elements used for beam steering, manipulation and imaging, for example in communication, medical or star trecking applications. They have a highly reflective coating on at least one surface of a glass or metal substrate.
Even custom optical mirrors and highly specified shapes such as off axis- or lightweighted mirrors and reference- and corner cubes are possible.
The choice of substrate and coating depends on the application of the optical mirror. The substrate may be plano or spherical (glass or metal), or may be parabolic or ellipsoidal (on-axis or off-axis; metal substrates only). Parabolic mirror and ellipsoidal mirrors are precision CNC machined with low surface roughness to avoid scattering.
Optical plane mirrors can be manufactured in almost any shape: round, rectangular, elliptical, convex, concave mirrors or any other shape including cut-outs and drill holes. Holes may also be drilled at an angle to the surface normal.
Weight considerations are fundamental for some applications. We offer CNC milling on the back surface of our lightweighted mirrors, whether planar, spherical or aspheric. Suitable patterning of the back side milling ensures high stiffness while reducing mass to a minimum.
Furthermore, we offer hollow retroreflectors (corner cubes) which are much lighter than solid designs.
The design of the mirror coating depends on the technical and economical requirements of the application. We offer dielectric coatings and metal coatings with protective overcoat. All our mirrors can be used as laser mirrors.
Artifex Engineering offers custom dichroic mirrors tailored to your requirements. Dielectric coatings are particularly developed for the respective application and enable precise wavelength ranges, so that individual wavelengths or selected ranges can be specified.
Custom specialized dielectric optical mirros such as hot mirrors or cold mirrors are available in our portfolio. They are usually used where heat could damage a system.
Metal coatings may be aluminium, silver or gold.
Aluminum Mirrors: Protected aluminum is economical, environmentally robust and reflects from the UV to the mid-IR. The reflectivity is not as high as for silver or gold and has an absorption dip from about 750-850nm.
Silver Mirrors: Protected silver exhibits higher reflectivity than aluminium but does not extend as deeply into the UV. Silver is environmentally not as robust as aluminium and will tend to darken at the edges of the optical mirror with time.
Gold Mirrors: Protected gold is the coating of choice for IR applications. This coating has the highest IR reflectivity and is environmentally very stable.
Copper Mirrors: Protected copper is an economical choice for IR applications when the absolute environmental stability of gold is not required. The coating is far more robust than protected silver and has similar or better IR reflectance than protected gold.
Range of dimensions: 1mm – 600mm
Highest available surface figure: λ/10 (DIN: 3/0.2)
Highest available surface quality: 20-10 S/D (DIN: 5/1×0.06)
Wavelength range: single Wavelength (dielectric) or broadband (all types)
Example of metal coatings:
| Coating | Angle of Incidence (AOI): 0° | Angle of Incidence (AOI): 45° |
|---|---|---|
| UV enhanced Aluminum |  |  |
| VIS enhanced Aluminum |  |  |
| Protected Silver |  |  |
| Protected Copper |  |  |
| Protected Gold |  |  |
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