Schott has expanded its line of advanced optics to include infrared (IR) materials.
Schott’s new IR material product line includes both Zinc Sulfide (ZnS) and Infrared Chalcogenide glasses. Schott offers its IR material in large sizes and custom shapes, and as windows, domes or lens blanks.
Potential applications for Schott’s IR material include night vision devices, temperature analysis tools and equipment inspection systems.
Schott offers two grades of ZnS material: regular (FLIR) grade Zinc Sulfide and Multi-spectral (Clear) grade Zinc Sulfide. FLIR grade Zinc Sulfide is a polycrystalline optical material with high performance in fracture strength and hardness.
Often used in the 8-12μm range, FLIR grade Zinc Sulfide is resistant to rain and particle corrosion, making it ideal for defense applications.
Multi-spectral (Clear) grade Zinc Sulfide is produced by treating ZnS after growth with a hot isostatic process that eliminates the material’s microscopic voids and defects. In addition, the hot isostatic process also produces a clear material. Clear grade Zinc Sulfide is used in applications across the visible to infrared region, typically from 0.45 to 12μm.
Schott offers five different Infrared Chalcogenide glass (IG) variations. These IG glasses have excellent transmission, and a low thermal change in the refractive index. These qualities enable optical designers to use IG glass to design color-corrected optical systems without thermal defocusing. Optimised for pairing with other IR materials in optical designs, the IG line is available as custom-cut blanks, generated lens blanks, and moldings for customer fabrication.