IR / Visible ZnSe windows

[John Futter]

New ZnSe windows arrived from China.
I bought 10 of these from china custom made for approx $2000 75mm dia 5mm thick they are stunning

[Dennis P Brown]

Obivously good for the infrared - so I assume that is their purpose? And why so many?

[Richard Hull]

Planning on a gang of IR work? At 2 kilobucks, your are a serious guy.

Richard Hull

[John Futter]

I'm wanting to see an ion beam target with a FLIR camera and see how hot it is getting during implantation and also use it to look at a heated stage in a sputter system

and why so many
the sputter system will tend to coat the window so I got a few spares

[Dennis P Brown]

Don't know the wavelength your using but if it is above 4 microns, a silicon wafer could be used to protect the ZnS window. Three inch diameter silicon wafers are rather cheap - or use to be; don't know if still avialable but might be worth looking in to if that wavelength is usable.

[Dennis P Brown]

Wow, looked up the transmission of silicon wafers and it is closer to one micron! While its just 60% over 1.4 microns (high index) it certainly would be a cheap protection plate.

[Richard Hull]

I once paid $100 for a giant (12" aperture) IR lens at a hamfest. It was undoubtedly some sort of military surplus IR lensing system. The lens weighed over 32 lbs! It had a totally opaque front element of pure elemental germanium. I kept it for about 3 years and sold it to a much more astute person at a hamfest for his first offer of $300. I now realize that there was about $8000 worth of germanium contained in that lens. Oh well....

I attach the pass band graph of a 5mm thick disk of pure germanium. Fantastic!

Richard Hull