Note: the article keyword search field and some other of the site's functionality would require Javascript, which however is turned off in your browser.

A wide range of possibilities arises from gradient index coatings (or graded-index coatings) [2, 3, 11], where the composition of a layer material is gradually varied (as in rugate filters). In the simplest case, a smooth index transition between two optical materials over a length scale of a few wavelengths can suppress fairly well the reflection over a wide spectral and angular range. This is difficult to realize, however, for surfaces next to air, since all solid materials have a refractive index significantly different from that of air. One solution is to use nanooptics in the form of sub-wavelength pyramid structures or the like (moth eye structure), see e.g. Refs.  [1], [2] and [7]. Such structures (which can be called photonic metamaterials) imitate a smooth transition of the refractive index to 1 by smoothly reducing the amount of solid material in a plane parallel to the surface. However, there are also solutions without nanooptics, in particular the integration of gradient index layers into a multilayer coating. This allows for good broadband anti-reflection properties in a wide angular range without using materials with a very small refractive index.

OPTOMAN offers high-performance sputtered anti-reflective coatings with reflectance per surface down to R < 0.01%. IBS coatings are optimized for temperature and humidity-independent performance, high damage threshold (> 168 J/cm2 @ 1064 nm, 9.8 ns, 100 Hz, 223 μm). Single wavelength, multiwavelength, or broadband coatings can be designed for the spectral range from 200 nm to 5000 nm.

Focuslight Technologies offers AR coatings from DUV (248 nm) to the infrared and a great selection of coating tests and analysis, including spectrometer and LIDT test. Focuslight can coat substrates up to 140 mm × 140 mm at the moment. Capacity available! Customization acceptable!

Apart from the reflection properties, the optical damage threshold of anti-reflection coatings can be of interest, for example for use in components for Q-switched lasers. Depending on the material combination, an AR coating can have a higher or lower damage threshold than the substrate material.

Using our advertising package, you can display your logo, further below your product description, and these will been seen by many photonics professionals.

For maximum transmission, Knight Optical offers a range of AR coatings to reduce surface reflections. Available as single layer MgF2 coatings, or multi-layer coatings, we can offer AR coatings centred to a specific wavelength or over a broadband wavelength range. With AR coatings from UV to IR, Knight Optical can help with your custom order.

The Navigator lacks the modern interior look of the Escalade but otherwise more fully delivers on value with more standard features. More importantly, the Navigator's upscale materials feel more inherently worthy of the price tag. As for the Mercedes GLS, its base version is priced similarly to the Escalade and Navigator, but the V8-powered trim levels are downright princely. The GLS delivers, but value isn't its calling card.

We produce a wide range of AR coatings with different designs like V coatings and broadband coatings, covering the spectral range from 300–6000 nm. Custom AR coatings are not a problem – we design and manufacture on site, all part of our rapid turnaround service, we like to think we offer the best service out there, typical one week!

Among luxury SUVs, the Cadillac Escalade has long made no apologies about being big and brash. Now Cadillac has redesigned the Escalade for 2021 with a new look and an infusion of new technology features. Do these updates make it the best large luxury SUV you can buy?

In most cases, AR coatings are used on optical interfaces with an area of at least a few millimeters squared. However, it is also possible to produce such coatings on the ends of optical fibers, sometimes even in jacketed and connectorized assemblies. There are various technical difficulties, e.g. related to outgasing of polymer jackets in a vacuum chamber and to the limited number of fiber ends which can be treated in one batch, but specialized sputtering processes have been developed which mitigate these problems. The coating performance can be as good as for normal bulk surfaces, at least for simple coating designs with only fewer layers.

For designing multilayer interference coatings, a flexible simulation and design software is indispensable. It must not only be able to calculate all relevant optical properties for a given design, but assist you in finding a suitable design for achieving given target properties. The RP Coating software is an ideal tool for such work, as it is particularly flexible. For example, you can define a figure of merit, formulating the optimization goal, of any conceivable kind.

Note: this box searches only for keywords in the titles of articles, and for acronyms. For full-text searches on the whole website, use our search page.

For highest convenience, create a bookmark in the bookmark toolbar of your web browser (e.g. Firefox or Chrome)! That way, you can open it with a single click.

In the simplest case, an anti-reflection thin-film coating designed for normal incidence consists of a single quarter-wave layer of a material the refractive index of which is close to the geometric mean value of the refractive indices of the two adjacent media. In that situation, two reflections of equal magnitude arise at the two interfaces, and these cancel each other by destructive interference.

Even for given coating materials, the damage threshold can vary considerably depending on the fabrication technique. Ion beam sputtering is known to allow for relatively high damage thresholds.

UltraFast Innovations (UFI) offers broadband anti-reflection coatings suitable for ultrafast laser devices, with numerous options for different wavelength ranges and angles of incidence.

Standard with every Escalade is a 420-horsepower 6.2-litre V8, the crown jewel of General Motors' truck and SUV engines. A diesel-powered six-cylinder engine is also new for 2021, and when paired with rear-wheel drive, it has the highest EPA-estimated fuel economy in this group of 23 mpg. The Escalade is relatively smooth and composed around turns, but its prodigious torque is the highlight of the driving experience.

LASEROPTIK offers a wide range of anti-reflection coatings for various types of optical elements in different wavelength regions from the mid IR to the UV. We can also supply coatings on special substrates and coatings for special applications.

The main draws for the Escalade are its signature styling and forceful V8 engine. There are also expansive dashboard screens that lend the Escalade some cutting-edge flair. However, the SUV is hampered by costly options and some subpar cabin materials.

The Navigator comes with more standard safety equipment, including blind-spot monitoring and lane keeping assist. Still, the Mercedes shines. Every GLS - even the base model - comes with ventilated front seats, four-zone climate control, eight USB ports, a stellar voice command system and numerous safety aids.

Lincoln makes the Navigator impressively easy to use: The doors open wide and deployable running boards come standard. It is also well appointed, although there are a number of blind spots. The GLS has no such issues. It's easier to see out of, and the materials inside are second to none. The GLS has exceptional ride quality, and an optional road-scanning adaptive suspension elevates the class to new heights.

With absorption being at low level (<1 ppm per coated surface at 1064 nm) AR coated windows and AR coated lenses feature enhanced lifetimes.

Apart from those properties, the tolerance to growth errors may also be of interest: there are sophisticated coating designs which reach a high performance only for very precise manufacturing. The growth error tolerance is therefore an important aspect to be considered in the design.

The Escalade offers a veritable buffet of features. Heated front and second-row seats are standard, and the highlight is Super Cruise, an optional hands-free driving aid that works exceptionally well. However, we're somewhat disappointed that most features are sold a la carte. For instance, adaptive cruise control isn't standard even on the Escalade's midlevel trims.

We expect a lot from large luxury SUVs, and the new Cadillac Escalade meets our expectations. Unfortunately, it doesn't exceed them, making the Lincoln Navigator a smarter choice for the money. But at the top of this comparison is the Mercedes-Benz GLS. It may not deliver on the value front, but it provides the most extravagant celebration of grandeur.

An anti-reflection coating (AR coating) is a dielectric thin-film coating applied to an optical surface in order to reduce the reflectance (also often called reflectivity) of that surface due to Fresnel reflections – at least in a certain wavelength range. Examples of the application of such coatings are spectacles, optical systems like camera objectives, optical windows, displays and photovoltaic cells.

This is easy to do: just find the lock icon in front of the URL in the address bar and drag that to the bookmark toolbar with the mouse. In case you find the bookmark entry too long, you can right-click it to edit the text, e.g. using "RP Enc" instead of "RP Photonics Encyclopedia".

Please do not enter personal data here. (See also our privacy declaration.) If you wish to receive personal feedback or consultancy from the author, please contact him, e.g. via e-mail.

Lincoln takes a similar approach to the Navigator: The standard version tows up to 8,700 pounds, and the longer Navigator L maxes out cargo space, though it trails the Escalade ESV in total capacity. In this case, the Mercedes places a distant third. It has a max towing capacity of 7,700 pounds and less cargo space than the two U.S. brands.

An unusual type of anti-reflection coating is one consisting of a very thin layer of some strongly absorbing material. The thickness can be only some tens of nanometers, i.e., far less than usually required for lossless AR coatings, as strong imaginary components of the propagation constant of such media lead to substantial phase changes. The incident light is largely absorbed by such structures, rather than transmitted. Such anti-reflection structures are called photonic metamaterials due to the combination of sub-wavelength structures, although simple interference phenomena are sufficient for understanding their characteristics [13].

In most cases, the basic principle of operation is that reflected waves from different optical interfaces largely cancel each other by destructive interference.

Anti-reflection coatings [3] are often used for optical components in order to reduce optical losses and sometimes also the detrimental influence of reflected beams. The residual reflectance for a given wavelength and angle of incidence is often of the order of 0.2%, or less (in a limited bandwidth) with careful optimization. For application on prescription glasses, the achievable suppression of reflections is significantly lower, since the coating must operate in a wide wavelength range and for a wide range of incidence angles. AR coatings are also used on laser crystals and nonlinear crystals. In such cases, additional challenges can arise from anisotropic thermal expansion e.g. of lithium triborate (LBO) crystals.

This story was provided to The Associated Press by the automotive website Edmunds. Ryan ZumMallen is a staff writer at Edmunds.

Multilayer anti-reflection coatings are often applied to optical glasses and crystals, but they can also be used for plastic optics.

Every Navigator comes with a turbocharged V6 engine making 450 horsepower; there's no other engine available. Like the Escalade, the Navigator is comfortable, but you never forget you're in a massive vehicle. The GLS' lineup ranges from a 362-horsepower six-cylinder engine to a ferocious 603-horsepower turbocharged V8 in high-performance AMG trim. In Edmunds testing the GLS posted the best acceleration, braking and handling figures of this group. On-road comfort is unparalleled too.

Ecoptik can produce single-layer or multilayer anti-reflection coatings on various kinds of optical elements, using different materials. We achieve reflectivities <0.2% or even better at many wavelengths from 355 nm to 1550 nm, and <0.5% at 284 nm or 193 nm, for example.

The 2021 Escalade makes a great first impression, with supple leather, authentic wood and aluminum trim. But compared with the best of the best, the Escalade falls short. Its seats lack plushness, and the ride is more bumpy over differing road surfaces. There's no question the Escalade is comfortable, but the competition is palatial and plush.

The advanced ion-beam sputtering (IBS) thin-film coating facility of EKSMA Optics is ready to meet the most critical demands on laser optics. EKSMA Optics optical engineers can design and produce complex low loss and high LIDT anti-reflection coatings to suit your application. By employing IBS technology we can deposit highly reproducible dielectric thin film coatings with precisely controlled spectral parameters.

By submitting the information, you give your consent to the potential publication of your inputs on our website according to our rules. (If you later retract your consent, we will delete those inputs.) As your inputs are first reviewed by the author, they may be published with some delay.

Not if the competition has anything to say about it. The 2021 Escalade faces off against the 2021 Lincoln Navigator, Edmunds' preferred pick over the previous-generation Escalade, and one of Europe's most luxurious SUVs, the 2021 Mercedes-Benz GLS. Edmunds' experts compare all three to find out which one takes the crown.

Perkins Precision Developments (PPD) manufactures custom IBS coatings, including anti-reflection coatings. PPD utilizes Ion Beam Sputtering coating technology because it is ideal for complex spectral designs, high power Nd:YAG and fiber lasers and applications where it is critical to minimize losses from absorption and/or scatter. IBS thin films have densely packed micro-structures resulting in stable, easy to clean optics that are insensitive to environmental changes such as heat, humidity and pressure. Our AR coatings exceed damage thresholds of 25 J/cm2 or sometimes even >60 J/cm2 at 1064 nm.

Note that there are also anti-glare surfaces, which suppress reflections in an entirely different way: by diffuse scattering from a microscopically rough surface. Such surfaces are suitable e.g. for some displays and viewing ports, but normally not for laser applications, and should be carefully distinguished from anti-reflection surfaces.

If no suitable medium for a single-layer coating can be found, or if anti-reflective properties are required for a very broad wavelength range (or for different wavelength ranges simultaneously, or for different angles of incidence), more complicated designs may be used, which usually have to be found using numerical techniques, implemented in suitable thin-film design software. A general trade-off of such multilayer designs is between a low residual reflectance and a large bandwidth. So-called V coatings have a high performance only in a narrow bandwidth (order of 10 nm), whereas broadband coatings offer moderate performance but in a wide wavelength range.

Anti-Reflection (AR) coatings are one of widely used optical thin-film coatings that can be applied to the surfaces of optical elements to reduce reflection and to improve transmittance within some spectral region. We provide AR coatings with appropriate materials and optimized configuration on a substrate material specified by the customer, with specified transmittance and a specified wavelength region.

Shanghai Optics provides custom anti-reflection coatings with appropriate materials and optimized configuration on a substrate material specified by the customer, with specified transmittance and a specified wavelength region.

Part of the Escalade's appeal is its ability to haul heavy toys with ease. And the new version impresses with a maximum towing capacity of up to 8,200 pounds - enough, in some cases, to pull a camper trailer up to 27 feet long. If you're looking for maximum space, the longer Escalade ESV has a lower tow rating but cavernous cargo capacity.

This photo provided by Ford shows the 2020 Lincoln Navigator, a three-row luxury SUV with a twin-turbocharged V6 engine and strong maximum towing capacity. (Eric Perry/Courtesy of Ford Motor Co. via AP)

Here you can submit questions and comments. As far as they get accepted by the author, they will appear above this paragraph together with the author’s answer. The author will decide on acceptance based on certain criteria. Essentially, the issue must be of sufficiently broad interest.

Analytical design rules exist for simple types of anti-reflection coatings with very few thin-film layers. For more sophisticated designs, numerical optimization algorithms similar to those described in the article on dielectric mirrors can be used. The resulting designs are normally not easily understood, as the anti-reflection properties result from a complicated interference of the reflections from various interfaces.