Further Improvements To G&H’s Superpolishing Capability

Gooch & Housego, the world’s leading provider of superpolished optical components, now introduces new CaF2 superpolished substrates. Calcium Fluoride polished substrates complement GH’s existing line of super-polished materials including SiC, Sapphire, Zerodur, BK7, Fused Silica, Crystal Quartz, YAG and more. G&H has been producing superpolished surfaces for over 30 years. In that time G&H has developed a proprietary process to meet both high and low volume production requirements. As an illustration of our production capacity, over the past decade G&H has manufactured in close to a million superpolished components.

Super-polished CaF2 substrates feature a surface roughness of less than 1Å and a surface quality of 10-5 scratch / dig or better, resulting in very low levels of scatter / defects – a requirement for any laser application that requires high quality (especially at UV wavelengths). The substrates offer an impressive λ /20 surface accuracy. Calcium fluoride substrates are ideal for a broad range of ultraviolet, visible, infrared optics for lithography and inspection / metrology applications. CaF2 is capable of high laser damage threshold with very low absorption. These material properties / capabilities make it an excellent material for use with excimer lasers.