| Dimensions | 0.2-300mm |
| Thickness | 0.1-30mm or custom |
| Diameter tolerance | +/- 0.05 mm |
| Thickness tolerance | +/- 0.05 mm |
| Surface quality | 80-50 Scratch-Dig |
| Surface accuracy | <15λ per inch |
| Clear aperture | 90% |
| Edges | Fine ground and beveled |
| Coating | As customer request |
| 1. Synthetic Sapphire, the single crystal form of Al2O3, is one of the hardest materials ( 9 Mohs hardness). Because of their structural strength, the sapphire windows can be made much thinner than other common optical windows, with better transmittance performance. |
| 2. High thermal stability and excellent thermal conductivity make sapphire windows suitable for applications in high power. The loss in a sapphire window is less than in another common optical window. |
| 3. Sapphire windows can withstand considerably higher temperatures than most optical windows with zero degradation. |
| 4. Sapphire Windows will not get dark and lose their brilliancy when exposed to UV light. |
| 5. Sapphire windows are extremely stable and resistant to attack by strong acid due to sapphire’s high dielectric constant. |
| 6. Sapphire windows offer wideband transmission from UV to Mid-IR (0.15-5.5µm). All these unique properties make sapphire windows the ideal material for extreme mechanical, chemical & optical applications. |
| Industries Served | Applications |
| Aerospace | Windows, ball bearings, sensors |
| Medical | Dental tooltips, endoscopy, camera lens cover |
| Oil & Gas | Sight window without housing, gauges, diffusion plates |
| Military | Windows, viewports, sensors, range finders |
| Research | Containment tubes, cuvettes, lenses |
| Semiconductor | Plasma tubes, lamps, lasers |
| Common Grades | Description & Common Applications |
| There are numerous sapphire growth methods & grades. Generally, the higher the grade the better the transmission in the UV and IR, and the less light scatter and lattice distortion. The best grades, in particular, UV grade will not solarize. | |
| Verneuil | Original & simplest growth method, lowest cost, excellent for mechanical applications & situations where optical clarity is not critical. Good for lower quality watch crystals & observation ports |
| EFG (Stepanov) | Edge-defined growth method (to be exact, Edge-Defined Film-Fed Growth) for near-net growth of tubes & large sheets. Better quality than Verneuil, but not as pure & defect-free as Kyropoulos or CZ. Excellent for most window applications including scanner windows & viewports and lower cost than Kyropoulos & HEM |
| Kyropoulos & CZ | Excellent optical properties, ideal method for most optical applications except long exposure high UV & extreme power threshold requirements. Also preferred for high purity applications like semiconductor, LED fabrication & high purity chemistry |
| HEM | The best quality sapphire, but difficult to acquire & considerably more costly compared to other grades. Quality compared to Kyropoulos is usually not significant enough to justify the cost for most applications. Best for extreme power & UV applications & for when zero fluorescence &/or high power threshold is required |
| Orientation | Definition & Common Applications |
| C-Axis | Also known as the "optical axis". The only orientation that has almost zero birefringences for signals parallel to the C-axis. Used for optimal optical, mechanical, thermal & electrical performance. In a rod or tube, the typical C-axis orientation is along its length, in a window perpendicular to the face. |
| Random | Parts are manufactured with no tracking of the crystal orientation. Lower cost & great for applications where orientation will not impact performance |
| Other | 90 Degree (to C-axis), M-Plane, A-Plane, R-Plane |
| Properties | Important Properties of Sapphire |
| Thermal, physical/mechanical, optical, electrical & chemical | |
| Transmission & Other Curves | Definition |
| The overall transmission of sapphire is determined by purity. All quality sapphire materials transmit about the same in the visible wavelengths while higher purity creates better transmission in the UV and IR. For all-optical materials, including sapphire, the thinner the material the deeper it transmits into the UV and IR | |
| Surface Finish | Description |
| Polished | Clear. Has little to no distortion & light scattering (depending on level of polishing). Ideal for optical applications, high purity semiconductor, chemical & vacuum processing |
| Fine Ground | Frosted. Ground surface roughness can be fine tuned for diffuser & low stiction applications. Tends to have micro-cracks that can trap water, gas & other impurities |
| As Grown | Clear but not mechanically polished. Some optical distortion due to growth process but no micro cracks. Excellent for high vacuum systems such as plasma chambers & chemical processing where purity is critical but optical clarity is not |
| Surface Quality | Definition & Rating |
| The scratch-dig rating of surface quality is a qualitative rating based on comparing the actual surface to a scratch-dig standard. Pass or fail is somewhat subjective without clear dimensions to measure | |
| 80-50 | Commercial quality such as car windshield and commercial windows |
| 60-40 | Good polish, good for commercial lenses and optics. Good for optics where light scatter is not a problem |
| 40-20 | Superior polish, good for higher performance optics and lower-powered lasers. Reduced light scatter over 60-40 |
| 20-10 | High Precision polish, extreme optics & good laser power threshold for medium-powered lasers. Very little light scatter |
| 10-5 | Highest surface quality, highest laser power threshold, and lowest vulnerability to solarization. Exceptional optics with near-zero light scatter |
| Why Sapphire? | One of the hardest materials available |
| Superior IR & UV transmission compared to other optical materials | |
| Highly scratch & abradant resistant | |
| Highly chemical resistant | |
| Maximum temperature rating of almost 2000C | |
| Excellent dielectric & loss tangent performance | |
| Sapphire Services | Annealing |
| Bonding/Fusing | |
| Coating | |
| Fire Polishing | |
| Grinding | |
| Laser Engraving | |
| Machining | |
| Screen Printing | |
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