Article Abstracts | March 2008
The complete article appears in the March 2008 issue of Photonics Spectra. If you do not have a copy of this issue,
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Optical Filters Go Deeper
A new generation of optical filters benefits optical applications in the mid-UV.
by Dr. Turan Erdogan and Dr. Atul Pradhan, Semrock Inc.
The importance of optical applications in the middle-ultraviolet spectral region — between about 200 and 320 nm — continues to increase with the advent of new excitation light sources in this range, also identified as the UVC (200 to 280 nm) and UVB (280 to 320 nm) bands. Examples of new sources include more efficient mid-UV lasers, AlGaN LEDs and more conventional broadband sources such as high-pressure mercury and xenon arc lamps with improved efficiency and longer lifetimes.
A major impediment that continues to make the mid-UV an optically challenging spectral region is the lack of durable optical filters with adequate performance. However, optical filters constructed from thin-film coating materials that have relatively low absorption and spectral dispersion yet high reliability at these short wavelengths would have significant advantages over components such as the diffraction gratings used in monochromators and spectrophotometers...
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