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Estimation of film thickness nonuniformity effects on coating optical properties
Author(s) -
Bierwagen Gordon P.
Publication year - 1992
Publication title -
color research and application
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.393
H-Index - 62
eISSN - 1520-6378
pISSN - 0361-2317
DOI - 10.1002/col.5080170409
Subject(s) - coating , materials science , optics , scattering , absorption (acoustics) , wavelength , thin film , optical coating , yield (engineering) , amplitude , transmission (telecommunications) , composite material , physics , optoelectronics , nanotechnology , computer science , telecommunications
Film nonuniformities cause many problems for the coating scientist. One area of coating film performance that they impact directly is optical properties. Measurements and predictions of film optical performance are all made assuming uniform film thickness. Incomplete leveling and other film application problems often yield nonuniform films with significant film thickness fluctuations. These film thickness imperfections can be modeled by a sine wave thickness fluctuation, and this fluctuation can be used to estimate the effects of nonuniformity in thickness on optical properties. This has been done using both approximate equations for scattering, transmission, and reflectance in films (zero absorption) and for the Kubelka‐Munk equations including absorption. the effects of average film thickness and amplitude of fluctuation on measured S, R, and T values are predicted numerically for several cases of [K, S] pairs consistent with wavelength independent situations (white or similar films) over black substrates, and then the calculations are used to consider colored films [considering δE(L*a*b*)] over black substrates. Film thickness fluctuations are shown to have considerable impact on film optical properties, especially in thin highly scattering films. Examples of the types of predictions that can be made are given; how the results depend on the coating optical parameters is also shown.