Optical films can be found in everyday optical systems, industrial products, and consumer electronics. Nowadays, industrial production has ushered in the laser era, optical films also have broad application prospects, and the optoelectronics industry is about to usher in an era of great development in the next 20 years. Although optical film is a small part, an accessory to optical components, it plays a huge role and can make the impossible possible. The following are 3 specific examples:
The first is laser inertial confinement fusion - the US NIF facility
Since the international ban on nuclear testing, many countries, led by the United States, have been seeking to build their own nuclear weapons physics research laboratories. The United States has built a large ignition device consisting of 192 lasers, costing approximately US$4 billion. . However, after the device was built, researchers discovered that its optical components were extremely susceptible to damage, and it took several years to solve the problem of easy damage to the optical film. It can be seen that improving the laser damage resistance of optical films is crucial, which is related to the normal operation of a multi-billion dollar super device.
The second is the gravitational wave detection LIGO device
The 2017 Nobel Prize in Physics was awarded to American scientists Rainer Weiss, Barry Barish, and Kip Thorne in recognition of their contributions to the discovery of gravitational waves, as shown in Figure 3. By regulating the material and structure of the optical film, scientists significantly reduced the noise and improved the signal-to-noise ratio of the entire system. The lowest detectable strain sensitivity was reduced from 10-20 Hz-1/2 to 10-21 Hz-1/2, The ability to detect weak gravitational waves has been increased by 10 times, and gravitational waves can be detected within a radius of 420 million light-years centered on the Earth. Therefore, the optical film plays a very important role in this LIGO device. Without the optical film to significantly reduce the detector loss and improve the detection signal-to-noise ratio, LIGO will not be able to realize its value.
Finally, the extreme ultraviolet lithography machine
Chips are a hot topic nowadays, and the best and most advanced chip manufacturing equipment is extreme ultraviolet lithography equipment (Figure 4). At 13.5 nanometers, the optical film can achieve a reflectivity of 70%, which is similar to other short-term Compared with the wavelength band, the reflectivity has reached the highest level. This is the overall performance requirement of the Dutch ASML company for the production of photolithography machines. Without the 70% brought by the optical film, even if it is reduced to 60%, the performance advantage of the photolithography machine will no longer exist.