A new achromatic glass for near infrared laser instruments

Abstract

This research investigates new glasses which are best suitable for design of optical systems
working in the infrared region between 1.01 to 2.3μm. This work is extended to Oliva & Gennari
(1995,1998) research in which they found that the best known achromatic pairs are (BAF2-IRG2; SRF2-
IRG3; BAF2-IRG7; CAF2-IRGN6; BAF2-SF56A and BAF2-SF6). Schott will most probably stop the
production of these very little used and commercially uninteresting IRG glasses. In this work equally
good performances can be obtained by coupling BAF2, SRF2&CAF2 with standard glasses from Schott
or Ohara Company. The best new achromatic pairs found are (SRF2-S-TIH10; CAF2-S-LAL9; CAF2-SLAL13
and CAF2-S-BAH27). These new achromatic pairs are analyzed by using ZEMAX ray tracing
program to design and analyze the same F/2 camera used by Oliva and for the same near infrared region
(1.01-2.3μm). The results show that these pairs of glass have good performance in infrared design
applications.