Infrared High-Index Coating Materials, PbTe and Pb1−xGexTe: Properties and Applications

Abstract

The greater value of refractive index for high-index layers in thin-film interference filters operating in the infrared has an incomparable advantage. Lead telluride (PbTe), which is much superior to other infrared high-index coating materials due to its high index and advantage of fundamental absorption edges, has played an important role in filters employed in the infrared radiometer and other instruments launched in space atmosphere sounding research projects. In this chapter, we summarized some recent achievements in the investigations into another infrared high-index coating material-lead germanium telluride (Pb 1Àx Ge x Te), a pseudo-binary alloy of PbTe and GeTe. It can be revealed that the layers of Pb 1Àx Ge x Te exhibit the tunable optical properties, such as temperature coefficient of refractive index and fundamental absorption edge, as well as mechanical properties, such as the hardness and Young's modulus, corresponding to its intrinsic ferroelectric phase transition. Some important applications in thin-film interference filters were also demonstrated for its tremendous potential, such as a stable narrow bandpass interference filter without temperature-induced wavelength shift and a tunable infrared short wavelength cutoff filter. Furthermore, it is also revealed that electron beam evaporation is a more effective congruent-transfer technique to deposit the layers of Pb 1Àx Ge x Te.