Material E A S

SELECTION OF MATERIALS FOR WINDOW/DOME APPLICATIONS

Introduction Infrared windows and domes provide an interface to the world and function to protect infrared optical systems from the harsh environments in which they are configured to operate. The designer of the window or dome has the challenge of creating an interface that is as invisible to the infrared optical system as possible. This challenge is complicated by additional requirements for electromagnetic shielding, low observability and operational environments involving high velocities and temperatures, chemical degradation and erosion. A starting point is the selection of a material having high transmittance in a passband matching the bandwidth of the infrared detector. Materials with lower refractive indices have lower surface reflection losses and anti-reflective (AR) coatings can be applied to materials of higher refractive index. However, even under benign conditions, absorption in the window/dome, AR coatings, radar cross section (RCS) treatments reduce transmittance. The transmittance also varies with the sensor line of sight angle of incidence. If a faceted window is being designed, effects of bond line and window strut obscurations also reduce transmittance. The window performance requirements are derived from the total IR system performance requirements. As a component of a sensor system, the window design must be attacked from a systems level. The ultimate materials selection derives from an interactive design process that involves: (1) the design of the sensor platform, which imposes geometrical constraints, (2) the design of mounts and the selection of support frame materials, (3) the design of the optical train and (4) the overall sensor performance requirements. Thus, the transmission of the window/dome must be adequate to meet IR system target range requirements, false alarm rates, target detection and recognition criteria, tracking rates, etc. Furthermore, it must do so under degrading environmental effects that introduce absorption, emission, distortion, scatter, thermal stress and mechanical stress, that if severe enough, may cause fracture and destruction. These degrading environmental effects arise from the following: Aerodynamic considerations dictate that windows and domes have shapes (hemispheres, cones, ogives, etc.), contributing to large refractive errors that degrade resolution unless made very thin. Thickness of the window/dome, however, must be traded off with strength to survive environmentally induced loads. Material optical properties are temperature dependent. Refractive index changes with temperature and can introduce distortion and deflection. The transparency of many materials degrades with temperature, particularly near the long wave cutoff. As any other object, windows and domes radiate energy when they get hot. Fortunately, since a poor absorber is also a poor emitter and since window/dome materials are selected for low absorption, they

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Kent Kogler
IIT Research Institute Fairborn, Ohio

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also have low emissivity, radiating only a negligible amount of energy in the passband. However, their close proximity to the IR sensor and the exceedingly high temperatures created by supersonic flight requires careful consideration of a materials emissivity. Inadequate consideration can result in emitted radiation that can mask a target, saturate a detector and produce ghosts in a reconnaissance system. Thermal shock fracture occurs when intense heat loads on window/dome surfaces induced by high velocities create temperature gradients between outer and inner surfaces. The thermal gradient generates compressive stresses on outer surfaces and tensile stresses on inner surfaces. When these stresses exceed the nominal strength of the dome, catastrophic failure results. A designers consideration of the above factors requires availability of a reliable and comprehensive materials properties database in order to allow optimal selection of a material or material combinations which best satisfy performance goals. The content of the database must provide material properties and their variation with environmental parameters. An appreciation for these properties and parameters is gained through a consideration of typical applications that determine the severity of degrading environmental effects as well as analyses that determine those effects on window/dome materials. A summary of applications has been presented by Klocek, et al1, and is shown in Table 1. In the high supersonic case, temperature effects dominate along with cost, but sizes are generally small. The low supersonic case is also dominated by temperature effects but not as severely and can have the added demand for larger sizes. The subsonic case is dominated by large sizes, durability and electromagnetic interference (EMI). Observability may enter as another consideration in any of the above applications. Refractive Effects Even if a window/dome meets specifications for flatness, parallelism, concentricity, wedge birefringence, etc., environmental effects can induce wavefront distortion leading to boresight error or loss of resolution. Wavefront distortion arises when aerodynamically induced heating introduces thermal gradients across the window/dome or when differential expansion between the window/dome and its mounting causes mechanical stress. In the former case, the material property influencing the severity of the effect is the change in refractive index with change in temperature or dn/dt. The temperature gradient produces a refractive index gradient and therefore an optical path length or phase difference across the window/dome, resulting in wavefront distortion. In the latter case the magnitude of the distortion depends upon the difference in expansion coefficients and the temperature rise. A linear distortion in the wavefront may shift the image creating a wrong target location. Higher order

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Material E A S
effects result in image distortion, defocusing and chromatic aberration that may interfere with target detection and recognition. These effects are minimized by selecting a material with a low (dn/dt) and a high thermal conductivity together with a mounting material with expansion coefficient matched to that of the window/dome. If compatible expansion coefficients are not viable, consideration should be given to attachment schemes that de-couple the window/dome from its mounting. Mechanical Strength IR window/dome materials are inherently brittle due to porosity, grain boundaries and cracks formed by stress during crystal growth. The strength of these materials is further degraded by surface and edge damage introduced during grinding and polishing of the materials. Due to the above factors, the observed tensile strength sf, is a magnitude or two less than the theoretical tensile strength, sth, where E is Youngs modulus, go is surface energy per unit area, ro is the lattice spacing and C is the crack dimension.
sth = (2Ego/ro)1/2 sf = (2Ego/pC)
1/2

E
smaller variance. A more adequate approach is to use the sf that corresponds to the desired probability of survival. Transmission/Absorption Routinely, window passbands are 3-5 mm and 8-12 mm as dictated by low absorption windows in the atmosphere. At higher altitudes, where the density of the atmosphere is lower, these windows may broaden. To adequately evaluate a window/domes spectral transmittance, a database must be populated with absorption coefficients as a function of temperature as well as wavelength. Absorption loss increases exponentially with temperature. If relatively thick windows are required to handle high aerodynamic loads, penalties are compounded since absorption also increases exponentially as a function of thickness. Not only does transmission suffer another exponential loss but also the increased absorption induces higher increasing temperatures, which increase the magnitude of the exponential temperature coefficient. The transmission of germanium is particularly sensitive to temperature rise exhibiting large increases in absorption at temperatures approaching 100 C. However, gallium arsenide provides transmission in the 3 to 5 mm and 8-12 mm bands up to 400 C. Other materials such as sapphire, spinel and aluminum oxy-nitride exhibit a bandpass reduction due to increased absorption at 4 to 5 mm at 500 C while gallium phosphide, yttria, zinc sulfide and zinc selenide exhibit usable passbands out to 5 mm at least up to 500 C. While silicon loses transparency at longer wavelengths at reasonably low temperatures, it has a usable 3 to 5 mm passband up to 300 C. While zinc sulfide and zinc selenide remain transparent up to 600 C, an absorption band at 9 mm hinders the use of gallium phosphide in the 8-12 mm band. Diamond is the only material with transmission above 600 C. A comparison of the upper temperature limits for various dome materials is shown in Figure 1. Transmission is also degraded by high-speed impacts with rain, sand, ice, etc., the amount of damage (erosion) increasing with exposure time.

(1) (2)

The relevant data base material properties are go and a stress intensity factor, KIC, which combines tensile stress and crack dimension through a dimensionless constant, Y, that depends on geometry of the loading and the crack configuration. KIC = sf /YC1/2 (3)

As alluded to by Klocek et al1, caution should be exercised in relying on sf alone in selecting a strong material. Since database values of sf are compilations of test data, a high sf may have a large variance associated with it resulting in a higher probability of failure, than a lower sf with a

Table 1. Application versus Window and Dome Requirements1 High Supersonic (> Mach 3) Examples: Ballistic missile interceptors; tactical air-to-air missiles; tactical air-to-ground Requirements: Thermal shock resistance; transmission above 600C; low absorption/emission; low transmitted wavefront distortion (i.e., low dn/dT, high thermal conductivity); low cost; small window and dome size (typically < 6 inches) Low Supersonic (< Mach 3) Examples: Tactical air-to-air missiles; tactical air-to-ground missiles; aircraft (i.e., FLIRs, IRSTs, threat warning, and laser designators and rangers) Requirements Thermal shock; transmission from 100C to as high as 600C; low absorption/emission; EMI shielding; durability; strength; low transmitted wavefront distortion (i.e., low dn/dT); low cost and sizes (< 6 inches) for domes, (> 12 inches) for windows Subsonic (< Mach 1) Examples: Aircraft and helicopters (i.e., FLIRs, IRSTs, sensors, seekers, threat warning, and laser designators and rangers); air-to-air; air-to-ground; ground-to-ground missiles; ground vehicle and weapons (i.e., thermal sights) Requirements: Transmission up to 100C if airborne; EMI shielding; durability; strength; low cost and sizes (< 6 up to 12 inches) for missile and ground vehicle and weapons; large sizes (>12 inches) for windows

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Transmission of the window/dome is degraded by way of scattering from the damaged surface and reflection accompanying the removal of the AR coating. While diamond like coatings reduce erosion, they generally are absorptive, reducing transmission. Transmission Temperature Limits 3-5mm band

700 600

Thermal /Mechanical Fracture A window/dome structure must be designed to withstand the thermal stress induced by aerodynamic heating as well as the mechanical stress induced by aerodynamic pressure. The pressure load ultimately depends on the altitude and velocity imposed by the application. As elucidated by Klein2, thermal stresses depend not only on material properties but also on the thermal environment as characterized by the thermal thickness or Biot number, Bi, where h is the heat transfer coefficient, L is the thickness and k is the thermal conductivity. Bi = hL/k (5)

500

Temperature, C

400 300 200 100 0

Ge

GaAs

Al203 (Sapphire), MgAl204 (Spinel), ALON

Si

ZnS, ZnSe C (diamond)

Susceptibility to thermal shock is reduced by low heat transfer and high thermal conductivity and increased by high heat transfer and low thermal conductivity. A value of Bi < 1 implies a thermally thin window/dome since the rate of heat transfer due to conduction exceeds the rate at which aerodynamic heat is transferred to the window/dome. The heat transfer coefficient, h, is a function of speed and altitude. The higher the speed, the greater the heat transfer; the higher the altitude, the lower the heat transfer. Thus, the thermal thickness is application dependent. In a thermally thin regime (Bi < 1), the resistance to thermal shock is enhanced by making the dome as thin as is consistent with structural requirements. The Biot number can be rewritten in terms of the dome radius (R), the heat transfer coefficient at the stagnation point (hst), the external pressure load (Dp), the thermal conductivity (k) and the nominal strength (s). Bi *=1.75hst (Dp)2/3R1/2(ks2/3)-1 (6)

Material
Figure 1. Upper Temperature Limits for IR Dome Materials

Emissivity Aerodynamic heating of a window/dome causes it to radiate as a blackbody. The radiant spectral exitance (watts/area as a function of wavelength) is given by the Planck formula, which assumes an emissivity of 1. The peak exitance occurs at a wavelength given by the Wein displacement law. Since windows/domes have a transmission band, their emissivity in that band must be less than one and vary with wavelength, analogous to the wavelength dependence of absorption. The greater the emissivity, the greater the power radiated to the detector. If the temperature and emissivity are high enough, the target signal could be exceeded or the detector saturated. Since passive or active cooling is difficult to achieve, the problem is addressed by selecting materials with low absorption (and thus also low emissivity). Material selection is limited by intrinsic absorption in many window/dome materials and its exponential dependence on temperature. As apparent from the Wein displacement law, higher temperatures shift the peak of the radiated spectrum to shorter wavelengths.
lpeak = _____________ 2.98x103mm K

For thick domes, the thermal shock should be essentially independent of the geometry and the environment. For thin domes on the other hand, the performance depends not only on a specific material property combination or figure of merit, but also on the radius of the dome and the aerodynamic/aerothermal load. The thermal shock resistance (TSR), after Kline2, can be determined from the thermal shock temperature (TST). TST is the maximum allowable stagnation temperature rise the dome can tolerate before thermal shock. It is the temperature rise in adiabatic wall temperature outside of the dome above the inner wall temperature at the onset of the shock, i.e., (TstTiw)lim. for Bi > 1 for Bi < 1 Where: (TstTiw)lim = (TSF/4) (1-n) / aE (TstTiw)lim = (TSF/4)s(1-n) / aE (7a) (7b)

(4)

Therefore at higher temperatures, it may be difficult to operate in the 3-5

mm band. Moving operation to the 8-12 mm will generally ease the absorp-

Tst = stagnation temperature Tiw = dome inner wall temperature TSF = thermal shock factor; a geometric attachment and temperature profile factor s = nominal strength n = Poissons ratio a = thermal expansion coefficient E = elastic modulus

tion requirements. However, this option must be traded off with other material properties of 8-12 mm passband materials, the choice being dictated by the overall requirements of the application.

Fracture is also influenced by non-thermal mechanical loads induced by aerodynamic pressure. Assuming a safety factor of at least 4, the dome thickness required for withstanding a pressure load of Dp with good probability of

survival is a function of the dome radius (R) and the flexural strength sf. If sf is the characteristic flexural strength derived from a Weibull statistical analysis, the minimum dome thickness can be expressed as: Lmin __ 1.75[Dp/sf]2/3 R (8) For a flat window: Lmin sf -1/2 (9) Coatings Windows and domes are coated for a variety of reasons and applications. These include durability, antireflection, EMI, heating, and signature reduction. Antireflection coatings on exterior surfaces must withstand blowing sand/dust and driving rain. While erosion may be reduced by diamond like coatings, they are somewhat absorptive and reduce transmission. Two types of stresses arise in a window/dome due to particle impact, a stress perpendicular to the surface and a lateral shear stress as may accompany a water droplet spreading across the surface after impact. Protection against both types of stresses simultaneously requires a coating that exhibits both high in plane elastic modulus and strength together with low elastic modulus perpendicular to the surface. The strong high in plane elastic modulus lowers susceptibility to water drop damage related to lateral shear while the low elastic modulus perpendicular to the surface absorbs and stores impact energy through elastic deformation, reducing stress transmitted to the window/dome. Polymer coatings are being researched to achieve these properties.3

For applications requiring heating of the window/dome, conductive films or grids of materials such as nickel/chrome may be deposited on the surface or embedded within a laminated composite substrate. If the window dome is a semiconductor, heating may be accomplished by passing current through it. However, the designer must pay careful attention to the placement of electrodes to assure uniform heating of the window dome so as not to introduce wavefront distortion. For semiconducting window/domes, there is a degree of inherent electromagnetic shielding. While shielding improves with decreasing resistivity, unfortunately absorption losses increase. Grid patterns may be deposited on insulating window/domes to achieve shielding and reduce observability at particular frequencies. The design of the grid must balance its effectiveness with its degree of obscuration and diffraction, both of which may degrade image quality. References 1. P. Klocek, T. McKenna, and J. Trombetta, Thermo-optic, Thermomechanical, and Electromagnetic Effects in IR Windows and Domes, and Rationale for GaAs, GaP, and Diamond, SPIE Proc., Vol. 2286, pp. 70-90, 1994. 2. C. A. Kline, Infrared Missile Domes: Is There A Figure Of Merit For Thermal Shock, SPIE Vol. 1760, Window and Dome Technologies and Materials III, pp. 338-357 (1992) 3. P. Klocek, et al., Broadband IR Transparent Rain Erosion Protection Coating for IR Windows, SPIE Proc., Vol. 1760, pp. 210-223, 1992.

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