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 (please note that we cannot guaranty crystal orientation for Diam bigger than 100mm)
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