Common Laser Optics Materials

This is Section 8.9 of the Laser Optics Resource Guide.

Understanding the most commonly used laser optics materials will allow for easy navigation of Edmund Optics’ wide selection of laser optics components. Table 1 below lists common substrates used for laser optics, along with their key properties, followed by transmission curves for each material. All values in Table 1 are at 1064nm and 20° C and all transmission curves show the internal transmission of 5mm thick substrates without Fresnel reflections. Transmission data was gathered using Edmund Optics’ spectrophotometers.

Material	Transmission Range (nm)	Index of Refraction (n)	Abbe Number (v)	Group Velocity Dispersion (fs²/mm)	dn/dT (10^-6/K)	Coefficient of Thermal Expansion (10^-6/K)	Relative Price
CaF₂¹	200nm - 7μm	1.429	95.1	17.280	-10.6	8.85	$$$
UV Grade Fused Silica (Corning HPFS^® 7980)²	185nm - 2.1µm	1.450	67.8	16.476	9.6	0.55	$$
KrF Grade Fused Silica (Corning HPFS^® 7980)²	185nm - 2.1µm, T ≥ 99.9% @ 248nm	1.450	67.8	16.476	9.6	0.55	$$$
IR Grade Fused Silica (Corning HPFS^® 7979)²	300nm - 3.5µm	1.451	67.8	16.476	9.7	0.55	$$($)
N-BK7³	350 - 2000nm	1.507	64.2	22.369	3.0	7.1	$
N-SF5³	330 - 2500nm	1.651	32.3	77.779	3.4	7.9	$
Sapphire^*4	200 - 5500nm	1.755	72.2	28.588	13.1	5.4	$$$
N-SF11³	400 - 2500nm	1.754	25.8	118.44	2.4	8.5	$

*Sapphire is a birefringent material and all specifications correspond parallel to C-Axis

Table 1: Common laser optics substrates and their key properties (all values at 1064nm and 20° C). Materials are listed from smallest refractive index to largest refractive index. The small dollar sign by KrF grade fused silica indicates that it is slightly more expensive than UV grade fused silica. SImilarly, the small dollar sign in parentheses by IR grade fused silica indicates that it is sometimes slightly more expensive than UV grade fused silica, but it is almost never cheaper

Figure 1: Internal transmission curves for common laser optics materials with no Fresnel reflections

More information on key properties of optical glass types can be found in our Optical Glass application note and information specific to materials for infrared applications can be found in our Correct Material for Infrared Applications application note, although not all of these materials are compatible with laser systems.

References

I. H. Malitson. “A redetermination of some optical properties of calcium fluoride,” Appl. Opt. 2, 1103-1107 (1963)
“Corning HPFS® 7979, 7980, 8655 Fused Silica.” Corning, February 2014.
“Optical Glass Data Sheets.” Schott, February 2014.
I. H. Malitson. “Refraction and dispersion of synthetic sapphire,” J. Opt. Soc. Am. 52, 1377-1379 (1962)
Collier, David, and Rod Schuster. “Superpolishing Deep-UV Optics.” Photonics Spectra, February 2005.

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