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Thin-film coating tutorials

Worked examples for designing, optimizing, and analyzing optical coatings.

7 tutorials RSS feed
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The introductory path

Begin with the basic AR examples, then move into optimization.

  1. 01 Tutorial 1 · 5 min How to Design an Antireflection (AR) Coating — A Step-by-Step Guide Design a single-layer antireflection coating for glass, derive the quarter-wave conditions, and verify the result in TFStudio.
  2. 02 Tutorial 2 · 7 min Designing a Two-Layer V-Coat for 550 nm Design a two-layer V-coat on N-BK7 with SiO2 and ZrO2.
  3. 03 Tutorial 3 · 5 min Refining a Four-Layer Broadband AR Coating Set a 450–650 nm antireflection target and refine a four-layer MgF2, HfO2, and SiO2 coating on BK7.
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Foundations

Basic coating physics and designs that can be checked by hand.

3 tutorials
  1. 01 Foundations · Tutorial 1 How to Design an Antireflection (AR) Coating — A Step-by-Step Guide Design a single-layer antireflection coating for glass, derive the quarter-wave conditions, and verify the result in TFStudio. 5 min read
  2. 02 Foundations · Tutorial 2 Designing a Two-Layer V-Coat for 550 nm Design a two-layer V-coat on N-BK7 with SiO2 and ZrO2. 7 min read
  3. 03 Foundations · Tutorial 3 Building a Quarter-Wave Dielectric Mirror Learn the basic HL-pair structure of a dielectric mirror and build one in TFStudio with Stack Formula. 3 min read

Optimization & synthesis

Merit functions, refinement, Needle, Gradual Evolution, and structural work.

1 tutorial
  1. 01 Optimization & synthesis · Tutorial 1 Refining a Four-Layer Broadband AR Coating Set a 450–650 nm antireflection target and refine a four-layer MgF2, HfO2, and SiO2 coating on BK7. 5 min read

Analysis

Understand spectra, fields, phase, color, angle, and polarization.

3 tutorials
  1. 01 Analysis · Tutorial 1 What Angle and Polarization Do to an AR Coating A coating designed at normal incidence is rarely used there. See what tilt and polarization do to a broadband AR coating, and when it stops working. 5 min read
  2. 02 Analysis · Tutorial 2 Predicting the Color of Coated Glass Turn a coating's spectrum into a CIE color. See why AR coated lenses have purple tint. 7 min read
  3. 03 Analysis · Tutorial 3 Reading the Admittance Diagram What the admittance locus plots, why every dielectric layer draws a circle, and three coatings read off the diagram in TFStudio. 11 min read