Premium
Plasma jet cleaning of optics
Author(s) -
Gerhard Christoph,
ten Bosch Lars
Publication year - 2018
Publication title -
vakuum in forschung und praxis
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.213
H-Index - 13
eISSN - 1522-2454
pISSN - 0947-076X
DOI - 10.1002/vipr.201800684
Subject(s) - plasma cleaning , transmittance , reflectivity , plasma , materials science , dielectric , dielectric barrier discharge , contamination , optics , atmospheric pressure , ambient pressure , optoelectronics , chemistry , ecology , oceanography , physics , quantum mechanics , biology , geology , thermodynamics
Summary Optical components used in normal ambient conditions are usually contaminated by hydrocarbons from the ambient air in the course of time. This contamination gives rise to a decrease in the particular optical performance, i.e. the reflectance of mirrors or the transmittance of lenses and windows. In order to address this issue, the impact of ageing at ambient conditions as well as subsequent plasma cleaning on relevant parameters of standard silver‐coated mirrors was investigated in this work. For plasma cleaning, a jet source based on a dielectric barrier discharge at atmospheric pressure was applied. It is shown that ageing leads to an adhesion of carbonaceous contaminations and an accompanying decrease in reflectance of the mirrors. The subsequent plasma cleaning process allows the efficient removal of surface‐adherent carbon and an alteration of remaining bonds. Finally, this effect gives rise to an increase in reflectance, nearly restoring the initial value before ageing.