First surface optical mirrors may be fabricated with or without a protective overcoat. The choice depends on the reflectivity required for a specific application and the environment in which the mirror will be placed.

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Dispersion required and efficiency at peak wavelength are often trade-offs. Coarse gratings, for example, generally have higher peak efficiency but lower dispersion.

In addition to our ready-to-ship precision and commercial grade first surface mirrors listed above, Advanced Optics has the capability to:

Our foundational technology allows us to create replicated gratings that offer affordable performance and our products cover the spectrum from the vacuum ultraviolet (VUV) to long-wave infrared (LWIR).

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Original gratings are first-run diffraction gratings where a substrate, likely glass or copper, is polished to a finish better than one-tenth of a wavelength (λ/10) with a high degree of flatness. For ruled diffraction gratings, the surface is then coated with aluminum using vacuum deposition. Photosensitive (photoresist) coating is used for holographic diffraction gratings. The master grating is completed by grooving the surface with either a ruling engine or holographic system.

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Advanced Optics manufactures bare aluminum and bare gold mirrors in almost any configuration to meet your requirements. For further information on our manufacturing capabilities, please visit our Capabilities page.

Aluminum and gold are the most common metals used without a protective overcoat. The bare (unprotected) metal provides a higher reflectivity than its protected (overcoated) counterpart. However, bare aluminum and bare gold are soft and should not be touched or cleaned. Therefore, careful consideration should be taken when choosing the type of metal coating for your application and whether or not a protective overcoat is required. Please visit our technical coating page for detailed information and technical coating curves for our bare aluminum and bare gold coatings.

Standard protected aluminum (PAL) is one of our most popular coatings for the visible spectrum. A layer of Al is applied directly to the polished surface and then a thin layer of either SiO or SiO2 is applied. The overcoat provides protection for the soft aluminum layer underneath, allowing the mirror to be gently cleaned using proper optical techniques. Please see our page on How to Properly Clean an Optical Mirror for further information.

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Ruled diffraction gratings have a higher peak efficiency than holographic diffraction gratings and a sharper spectral response around their blaze wavelength, due to their “sawtooth” groove profile. Applications like fluorescence excitation, analytical chemistry, life sciences, telecom, physics, education and space sciences – centered around a narrow wavelength range – benefit from a ruled diffraction grating blazed at that wavelength.

A diffraction grating is an optical component with a periodic structure that splits and diffracts light into several beams traveling in different directions. The directions of the beams depend on the spacing of the grating and the wavelength of the light so that the grating acts as the dispersive element.

Omega Optical has a patent-pending deep ultraviolet transmission grating. Formerly the domain of expensive etched fused silica gratings, these economical yet high performance gratings are available for your instrumentation today.

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Omega Optical designs and manufactures exceptional volumes of highly accurate ruled and holographic gratings, wire-grid polarizers and beamsplitters for OEM and reseller markets with our proven design approach and vast library of masters.

A first surface mirror (also known as a front surface mirror) reflects light directly from the coating that is applied to the polished or working surface of a glass substrate. First surface mirrors differ from second surface mirrors in that light does not have to travel through the glass before being reflected. This eliminates ghost images and makes first surface mirrors the superior choice for optical applications involving imaging.

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We manufacture custom gratings to meet specialty needs including: Multi-zone gratings, cylindrical gratings, and concave gratings.

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We provide several coating options to tailor reflectivity and efficiency. Protected Aluminum (Al) – Aluminum coat with a thin overcoat of magnesium flouride (MgF2) which prevents the formation of aluminum oxide which is absorbing in deep UV. It provides no benefit over bare aluminum for gratings used in VIS and IR. Gold (Au) – Superior performance over aluminum in the NIR region. Below 600nm the reflectance of gold falls off significantly and is a poor choice. Above 1200nm, gold offers very little advantage for a single pass application.

Our patented filtered diffraction gratings are a custom solution for OEM applications requiring isolation of the desired spectral band prior to diffraction, and are design limited in doing so prior to the diffraction grating component. Filtering the undesired spectral band prior to diffraction minimizes second order and ray scattering effects, maximizing spectral dynamic range.

Echelle replica gratings are special low period gratings designed for use in high orders only. The maximum possible resolution is obtained but, in general, it is necessary to use a second grating or prism to separate out the overlapping diffracted orders. Echelle replica gratings are an ideal solution for high-resolution spectroscopy due to their high dispersion in high orders.

Advanced Optics manufactures protected gold mirrors (PAU), protected silver mirrors (PAG), and dielectric mirrors in almost any configuration to meet a wide variety of applications. For further information on our manufacturing capabilities, please visit our Capabilities page, and for further information and coating curves for all our protected coatings, please visit our Technical Coating page.

Typical holographic diffraction gratings are produced on soda lime and fused silica glass substrates from high quality holographic master gratings and are intended for use in spectrometers and monochromators where cost and low stray light are of primary concern. They exhibit a flatter response due to their sinusoidal groove profile.

A transmission grating offers a basic simplicity for optical designs that can be beneficial in fixed grating applications such as spectrographs (aka optical spectrometer). The incident light is dispersed on the opposite side of the grating at a fixed angle. Transmission gratings are very forgiving for certain types of grating alignment errors.