BaF2 optical components

SINOPTIX supplies various optical components made of optical grade barium fluoride. Cheaper than other IR material like Ge and ZnSe it is often used as a cost effective solution for thermal imaging and night vision applications.

BaF2 characteristics

Barium Fluoride properties chart

Material denomination Barium Fluoride
Chemical formula BaF2
Refractive index @300 nm 1.5

@600 nm  1.473

@6 µm  1.445
Transmission range 160 nm to 12µm
Density 4.89 g/cm3
Hardness 82 Knoop (MOHS 3.5)
Young’s modulus 53.07 GPa
Thermal expansion 18.1*10-6 °K-1
Thermal conductivity 11.72 W/(m*°K)
Melting point 1386 °K

Please visit our complete guide on UV optics to know more.

Note

+ BaF2 hardness is rather low (3.5 Mohs) limiting its applications to low-wear environments

BaF2 optical components manufacturing capabilities

Manufacturing capabilities

Properties Values
Available dimensions up to D200mm
Dimensional tolerances +/-0.01mm
Thickness 1-50mm
Surface quality S&D : 20/10 normal quality; 10/5 high quality
Flatness (WFE)  lambda/10
Parallelism better than 10″
crystal orientations <111><110><100>
Coatings AR / BBAR

BaF2 components references :

Available BaF2 components

We can propose below kinds of optical components :

BaF2 optics are an alternative to Germanium optics for thermal optics (8-14µm), it can handle higher temperature (up to 500°C) much better than Ge (optics properties start to degrade from 100°C).

Request for a quote of BaF2 optical component