CONTAMINATION SENSITIVITY

Copyright © Thin Film Center Inc, 2006-11. All rights reserved.

Introduction
Calculates the Contamination Sensitivity Parameter for any given design.
Calculation Details
The absorptance of a thin absorbing film deposited over the front surface of an optical coating
is given«Macleod, 2001 #2341» by
4π nkd (1- R )
A= ⋅
λ Re (Ye )
(1)
4π nkd 4 y0
= ⋅
λ ⎡⎣1 + Re (Ye ) ⎤⎦ + ⎡⎣ Im (Ye ) ⎤⎦
2 2

where Ye is the exit admittance for the layer, that is the front admittance of the coating, and the
other symbols have their usual meaning. If we define H by:
4π nkd
H= (2)
λ
and replace Ye by x-iz, then we find
A 4 y0
= (3)
H ( y0 + x )2 + z 2
H is a measure of the absorption capacity of the film, while A is the actual absorptance. We
define A/H as the Contamination Sensitivity Parameter, that is a measure of the sensitivity to
absorptance of an optical coating. Note that the scale is such that a perfect antireflection coating
that terminates at the point y0 will have a sensitivity parameter of 1.0.
Dialogs and Output
Figure 1 shows the information dialog. This is followed by the parameter input dialog, Figure
2. This dialog is always in terms of wavelength, either the entries in the design file or default
values if the design file is set for some other independent variable. If the design file is set for
oblique incidence, the script will nevertheless set the calculations for normal incidence.
Although high performance antireflection coatings exhibit essentially the same sensitivity
there is great variation in the sensitivity of high-reflectance coatings. Figure 3 shows the
reflectance of an extended zone high reflectance coating consisting of two quarterwave stacks in
series with some adjustment by refinement of the outer and middle layers. This coating, as is
normal for such extended zone structures, coils around the admittance diagram and there is
considerable variation of sensitivity shown in both the table and plot of results, Figure 4 and
Figure 5.

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 Figure 1. This explanatory dialog appears at first.

Figure 2. The parameters entry dialog where the wavelength range is entered. All the
rest is completely automatic.

Figure 3. The reflectance of the extended zone high reflectance coating used as an
example.

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 Figure 4. The table of values of contamination sensitivity.

Figure 5. The plotted values of contamination sensitivity.

Date: 21 February 2011

Version: 1.10

Version History:
Version 1.00 – 17 August 2006
Version 1.10 – 21 February 2011 Brought into line with changes in Analysis object.

21 February 2011 Thin Film Center Inc 3