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Custom Optical Filters

  • Colored Glass Filter Material Blanks
Optical Filters transmit light of different wavelengths to attenuate or enhance an image and to transmit or reflect specific wavelengths. All Optical Filters pass, absorb, andor reflect light.

There is a large variety of Optical Filters available from Sterling Precision Optics, Inc. Here is a listing of the most commonly used in the optical industry today
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Custom Tempered Optics

  • Heat Absorbing Glasses Recommended HA-30 HA-15 HA-50
Tempered or toughened glass has been processed by controlled thermal or chemical treatments to increase its strength, both physically and thermally when compared to normal glass. Tempered glass is made by processes which creates balanced internal stresses. The greater contraction of the inner layer during tempering induces compressive stresses in the surface of the glass balanced by tensile stressed in the body of the glass. A strain pattern can be viewed from tempering when observed with polarized light or by using a pair of polarizing sun glasses. Sterling has perfected the Maltese Cross Strain Pattern which indicates a very hard temper with compressive stress exceeding 100MPa. This tempering formula is used for heat absorbing filters that experience extreme heating and cooling fluctuations.

Sterling is unique in that we have an in-house Tempering Department. Since the 1950s Sterling has gained national and international recognition for tempering both large and small optical components. Sterling has been successful in tempering Optical Filters as thin as 1mm. We have six tempering and sagging ovens in our Tempering Department. By far the most common optical component that requires tempering is a Heat Absorbing Filter.
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Optical Lenses

Sterling Precision Optics, Inc. has been making Optical Lenses since 1956. Our first shop was in a store front in Blue Island, Illinois, USA. However the oldest lens artifact is the Nimrud lens, dating back 2700 years to ancient Assyria. David Brewster proposed that it may have been used as a magnifying glass, or as a burning-glass to start fires by concentrating sunlight. Another early reference to magnification dates back to ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs in the 8th century BC, which depict "simple glass meniscal lenses".

Sterling Precision Optics, Inc. manufacturers very wide range of high quality lenses for a variety of applications. Listed below are the major types of lenses that Sterling manufacturers in its facility in Evanston Illinois, USA. We have been making lenses since 1956 and have thousands of radius gages and tooling to make your lens quickly. We also stock NBK7, Crown Glass, Pyrex and UV grade fused silica, which are the most common materials used to make optical lenses.
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Optical Windows

  • Materials Plate Glass
An Optical Window is a mechanically flat, sometimes optically flat, depending on resolution requirements, ) piece of transparent (for a wavelength range of interest, not necessarily for visible light) optical material that allows light into an optical instrument. A window is usually parallel and is likely to be anti-reflection coated, at least if it is designed for visible light. An optical window may be built into a piece of equipment (such as a vacuum chamber) to allow optical instruments to view inside that equipment.
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Optical Mirrors

Optical Mirrors are designed to reflect light for a variety of applications, including beam steering, interferometry, imaging, or illumination. Optical Mirrors are used in a wide range of industries, such as analytical instruments, life sciences, astronomy, metrology, semiconductor, defense, and solar.

Sterling Precision Optics offers a board range of Optical Mirrors in a multitude of reflective coating options, including Protected Aluminum, Enhanced Aluminum, Protected Silver, Protected Gold, or Dielectric.
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Night Vision Filters

Sterling Precision Optics, Inc. is an industry leader for the supply of NVG filters to the Night Vision Industry; Sterling offers a wide range of monolithic glass Night Vision Filters which meet the U.S. Military specification MIL-STD-3009. Sterling also offers NVG Filters for the new and expanding Light Emitting Diode (LED) technology which is being adopted for military and aerospace applications. The new NVG Filter Glass meets MIL-STD-3009 at a reduced weight through decreased thickness of the filter.

Night vision, also known as image intensification, allows humans to see in low to zero light conditions. Night vision is made possible by a combination of two approaches; sufficient spectral range, and sufficient intensity range. A device (NVD) works by collecting photons through a lens (NVIS). Then they pass through a photocathode which converts the photons into electrons. These electrons then pass through a microchannel plate, consisting of millions of closely spaced channels. In here the electrons can hit the walls so they will release thousands of additional electrons. Finally, the multiplied electrons will hit a phosphor screen where they get turned back into light. This light is thousands of times brighter than the original light and is in the visual spectrum of the human eye. The intensified light is in the same orientation as it came in providing a clear view of objects in the dark.
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Optical Coating

Optical coatings are composed of a combination of thin film layers that create interference effects used to enhance transmission or reflection properties within an optical system. The performance of an optical coating is dependent upon the number of layers, the thickness of the individual layers and the refractive index difference at the layer interfaces. The most common types of coatings used on precision optics are: Anti-Reflection (AR) (HEA) Coatings, High Reflective (Mirror) Coatings, Beam splitter Coatings, and Filter Coatings. Anti-reflection coatings are applied to optical elements to maximize throughput and reduce ghosting. High Reflective coatings are designed to maximize reflectance at either a single wavelength or across a broad range of wavelengths. Beam splitter coatings are used to divide incident light into known transmitted and reflected light outputs. Filters are found in a large number of industry applications and are used to transmit, reflect, absorb, or attenuate light at specific wavelengths. Sterling Precision Optics, Inc. offers a variety of Custom Coatings to meet any application need. Optical Coatings are designed for a specific incident angle of light and for a specific polarization of light such as S-polarized, P-polarized, or random polarization. If a coating is designed for light at a 0 angle of incidence, but is used with light at a 45 angle of incidence, the coating will not perform at the stated transmissionreflection specifications. Similarly, coatings are generally designed for randomly polarized light so using S-polarized or P-polarized light with a coating designed for randomly polarized light will again fail to produce the stated specifications.
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