Enhanced Aluminium
Aluminium is available as both protected and unprotected. Unprotected aluminium provides greater than 86% reflectance from near UV to mid IR. Aluminium will slowly oxidize, resulting in a loss of reflectance in the UV, and cause slight scattering throughout the spectrum. Unprotected aluminium makes it harder to clean.
Enhanced Aluminium is coated with dielectric layers which increase its reflection in certain regions of the spectrum and greatly improves durability. The coating is sensitive to wavelength, angle of incidence and polarisation. Reflectance values can be optimised further by adding more layers to the enhancing overcoat.
Typical reflection is 95% average over the wavelength region 450-650nm.
It is recommended that aluminium has a protective dielectric overcoat as this will also improve abrasion resistance, enabling the product to be handled and cleaned and less susceptible to damage.
For more information or to place an order contact our multilingual technical sales team on +44 (0)1622 859 444 or email us and discover how Knight Optical can improve your instrumentation and supply chain experience.