Exploiting extreme performance optical coatings developed within the UK gravitational wave community

薄膜涂层是我们周围大多数技术的核心组件，通常提供光学，电子和/或保护/装饰功能。薄膜是许多重要领域的关键使能技术，包括光学器件、电信、能源和储能、功能/耐用材料、生物医学等。许多商业应用有助于推动薄膜涂层的发展。例如，离子束沉积（IBD）最初是为制造激光环形陀螺仪的多层反射器而开发的，后来在电信行业得到了利用。这些涂层的精度和均匀性使电信行业在20世纪70年代制造了DWDM（密集波分复用）滤波器，允许在附近波长传输（和随后的分离）多个光信号。尽管IBD通常仍然是最苛刻的光学应用的首选方法，但与该技术相关的成本意味着英国公司必须从海外公司采购。我们注意到，在国防、生物医学、激光工程和量子技术等领域，英国有大量公司采购高性能IBD涂层。我们还注意到，英国在许多大型欧洲和国际科学项目中发挥着主导作用，这些项目需要增强性能的IBD涂层技术，包括ELI（极端光基础设施）和引力波探测（LIGO和爱因斯坦望远镜）。斯特拉斯克莱德大学开创了电子回旋共振（ECR）离子束沉积技术，其性能可以超越当前最先进的离子束沉积技术。该技术还具有降低相关成本的能力，因为其核心组件无需维护（不像目前的射频离子束沉积）。该项目旨在将该技术转让给国际领先的光子和光电子器件供应商，使英国成为下一代光学和量子技术的高性能光学涂层的国际供应商。

Thin film coatings are core components within the majority of the technology that surrounds us, typically providing optical, electronic and/or protective/decorative functionality. Thin films are a key enabling technology within numerous vital sectors, including optical devices, telecommunications, energy and energy storage, functional/durable materials, biomedical, etc. Many commercial applications have helped drive the development of thin film coatings. For example, ion beam deposition (IBD) was originally developed for fabricating multilayer reflectors for laser ring gyroscopes, and then later exploited within the telecoms industry. The precision and uniformity of these coatings enabled the telecoms industry in the 1970s to fabricate DWDM (dense wavelength division multiplexing) filters, allowing transmission (and subsequent separation) of multiple optical signals at nearby wavelengths. Although IBD has typically remained the method of choice for the most demanding optical applications, the cost associated with the technology means that UK companies have to source from overseas companies. We note that the UK has a large number of companies that procure high-performance IBD coatings, within sectors such as defence, biomedical, laser engineering, and quantum technology. We also note that the UK plays a leading role in a number of large European and international science projects, which require enhanced performance IBD coating technology, including ELI (Extreme Light Infrastructure) and in gravitational wave detection (LIGO and the Einstein Telescope). The University of Strathclyde has pioneered electron cyclotron resonance (ECR) ion beam deposition, which can surpass the performance of current state-of-the-art ion beam deposition. This technology also has the ability to reduce associated costs, due to having core components which are maintenance-free (unlike current RF ion beam deposition). This project seeks to transfer this technology to a leading international supplier of photonic and optoelectronic devices, to enable the UK to be the international go-to-supplier of extreme performance optical coatings for next generation optical and quantum technologies.