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THIN FILM OPTICAL

FILTERS

By: Er.Amit Mahajan

 Thin film optics
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 Thin-film optics is the branch of optics that deals with

very thin structured layers of different materials
 In order to exhibit thin-film optics, the thickness of
the layers of material must be on the order of the
wavelengths of visible light (about 500nm)
 Optical layers at this scale can have remarkable
properties
 These properties can further be enhanced by use of
difference in refractive indices between layers, air
and substrate
 These properties are used to make the ‘Thin Film
Optical Filters’
 Thin film filter
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 Thin-film filter is a very accurate colour filter used to

selectively pass light of a small range of colours while
reflecting other colours.
 A thin film filter uses the principle of interference.
 Layers of an optical coating is made on glass substrate
 This coating reinforces the certain wavelength and
interfere with other wavelengths
 By controlling the thickness of coating, we can select the
wavelength to be filtered out
 The filtered energy is sometimes absorbed by the
coating and sometimes reflected, depending on
operation used
 Working principle of Thin film
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Filter
1. The amplitude reflectance of light at any boundary between two
media is given by (1−ρ)/(1+ρ), where ρ is the ratio of the optical
admittances or ratio of the refractive indices at boundary
2. There is a phase shift of 180◦ when the reflectance takes place in a
medium of lower refractive index than the adjoining medium, and zero
if the medium has a higher index than the one adjoining it.
3. The third is that if light is split into two components by reflection at
the top and bottom surfaces of a thin film, then the beams will
recombine in such a way that the resultant amplitude will be the
difference of the amplitudes of the two components if the relative
phase shift is180◦, or the sum of the amplitudes if the relative phase
shift is either zero or a multiple of 360◦.
 Basic thin film filters
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According to the above three principles, a basic filter is formed

 At both the upper and lower

boundaries of the coating film,
the reflection takes place in a
medium of lower refractive
index than the adjoining
medium.
 To ensure that the relative
phase shift is 180◦ so that the
beams cancel, the optical
thickness of the film should be
made one quarter wavelength.
Practical Filters using thin
film optics
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There are many filters that can be constructed using

basic thin film optics which are:

 Edge filters
 Band-pass filters
 Narrow-band filters
 Broadband filters
 Multicavity filters
 Phase dispersion filters
 Edge Filter
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 Primary property that there is abrupt change in

rejection and transmission characteristics

Two groups:
 Longwave-pass

 Shortwave-pass
 Edge filter: Thin film absorption
filter
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 The coating material is absorption material

 It makes absorption edge in wavelength characteristics
 Mainly these are longwave-pass filters
 Silicon is used which exhibit fast transition from opacity to
transparency
 To decrease reflection losses, Germanium(multiple layer) is
used for filtering which has edge at 1.65 μm and RI of 4.0
 Other single layer materials include cerium dioxide, giving an
ultraviolet rejection–visible transmitting filter
 Edge filters: Interference filters
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 The basic type of interference edge filter is the

quarter-wave stack with characteristics given below
 Principle of operation is interference of two waves

 The system of figure can be used either as a

longwave-pass filter with an edge at 5.5 μm or a
shortwave-pass filter with an edge at 3.3 μm
 Band-pass filter
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 A filter which possesses a region

of transmission bounded on
either side by regions of
rejection is known as a band-
pass filter
 For the broadest band-pass
filters, the most suitable
construction is a combination of
longwave-pass and shortwave-
pass filters
 For narrower filters, this method
is not very successful so other
methods are used
 Band-pass filters: Broadband pass
filters
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 Most common filter is made by joining two filters, one

is short-pass and other is long-pass
 They are fabricated by both side coating of a glass
substrate
 Narrow-band filters
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 The simplest type of narrowband thin-film filter is based on the

Fabry–Perot interferometer
Fabry-Parot Interferometer
 The Fabry–Perot interferometer consists of two identical parallel

reflecting surfaces spaced apart a distance d

 In collimated light, the

transmission is low for all
wavelengths except for a
series of very narrow
transmission bands
spaced at intervals that
are constant in terms of
wavenumber
 Cont’d
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Multiple-beam interference in the spacer or cavity layer causes

the transmission of the filter to be extremely high over a
narrow band of wavelengths around that for which the spacer
is a multiple of one half wavelength thick
Application of Narrow-band filter in
Astronomy
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 It is used to detect faint Astronomical objects

 Faintness is due to starlight scattering with dust
 The sky light causes overall fogging in the
photographic plates
 The signal received from the astronomical objects is
photons
 Narrowband filter is used to capture only object light
and filter out the excess light
 This excess light is from sun and other stars
 We consider photons as Poisson’s distribution for
analysis of received photons and exposure time
 Filter positions
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The use of an interference filter centred on 656.3 nm

greatly increases the contrast between the nebulae
and the night sky
 Basic Astronomical filters
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There are mainly five category filters used in astronomy

which are UBVRI
U-Ultraviolet, B-Blue, V-Visible, R-Red, I-Infrared
Case study: SPITZER SPACE
TELESCOPE
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 The Spitzer Space Telescope is the fourth element in

NASA’s family of Great Observatories
 The spacecraft carries an 85-centimeter telescope and
three cryogenically-cooled science instruments capable
of performing imaging and spectroscopy from 3 to 180
μm
 The telescope used in SST is a Ritchey-Chrétien design
 The 85-cm diameter primary mirror and the rest of the
telescope structure are fabricated entirely of beryllium
 Specifications
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 Infrared Array Camera
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(IRAC)
 The Infrareds Array Camera (IRAC) was built by the
NASA Goddard Space Flight Centre (GSFC)
 Light from the telescope is reflected into the IRAC
structure by the pickoff mirrors
 Some photographs taken by Spitzer
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Photo of infant stars in Triffid Nebula by

Spitzer
 Cont’d
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Photo of hot planet HD 189733b, where water vapours were found in its
atmosphere
 Cont’d
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Photo of cluster of stars called “Eye of God” in infrared by

Spitzer
 References
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[1]-http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thin-film_optics
[2]-http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dichroic_filter
[3]-“Thin-film optical filters” Third edition, by H. A. MACLEOD
[4]- http://barrassociates.com/literature.php
[5]- http://www.lot-
oriel.com/site/site_down/of_astronomyfilters_deen01.pdf
[6]- http://ssc.spitzer.caltech.edu/documents/SOM/som8.0.pdf