Once the design and realization of optical components, it is important to be able to characterize them in terms of optical response and geometrical properties. In this context, the RCMO team has different spectrophotometry or microscopy instruments.
1- Spectrophotometric characterisation
Reflection / Transmission / Absorption measurements of optical filters are done with spectrophotometers developed by the company Perkin Elmer. We have two spectrophotometer Lambda 1050+, and four (...)

As part of a research and technology (R&T) project funded by the Centre National d’Etudes Spatiales (CNES), the RCMO team is interested in the development of bandpass filters in the near ultraviolet for LIDAR applications. The objective of this project is to realize a very narrow band filter centered at 355 nm and presenting a uniform and high transmission over a spectral range of 0.1 nm with a rejection equal to OD5 at 0.5 nm on either side of the centering wavelength. The development (...)

In the framework of several research and technology (R&T) projects funded by the Centre National d’Etudes Spatiales (CNES), the RCMO team has developed a technology for the fabrication of variable filters based on the Bühler HELIOS (plasma-assisted magnetron sputtering) machine. This technology is based on the use of gradient masks allowing to locally control the deposited thickness along one of the directions of the substrate on which the filter is deposited. Due to the high stability (...)

One of the main research interest of the RCMO team is the development of robust and performant methods for the determination of the opto-geometrical parameters of optical thin films from spectrophotometric measurements. This study is critical as this is a mandatory preliminary step before the design of any multilayer structure.
Refractive index determination
Knowing how to accurately determine the optical indices - real part n and imaginary part k - is an indispensable step in our (...)

Beyond the mastery of deposition technologies, a very important aspect of the work carried out within the RCMO team concerns the control of the properties of the stacks and in particular the thickness of each of the deposited layers. This activity, carried out in close collaboration with the company Bühler/Leybold Optics, is based on the development of in-situ optical control methods that allow following in real time the evolution of the optical properties during the deposition. Due to the (...)

Based on the design methods and the study of refractive index dispersions of materials developed in-house, the RCMO team is specialized in the fabrication of multilayered optical components. These components are made by physical vapor deposition using different machines available in the clean room of the Espace Photonique. The RCMO team has to date: a Bühler/Leybold Optics HELIOS machine (plasma-assisted magnetron sputtering) associated with an in-situ monochromatic optical control (OMS (...)

Multilayer optical coatings are the most commonly used technique for the control of spectral properties of light in industry (cosmetics, automotive, security elements). These structures represent a natural solution for color control. The realization of colorimetric structures with high saturation requires the fabrication of structures based on dielectric and metallic layers. However, metallic materials in thin layers present dispersion properties that are difficult to control and to (...)

The RCMO team is interested in the development of pixelated optical interference filters for the development of compact multi-spectral cameras. The initial idea of these activities, carried out within the framework of two research and technology (R&T) projects funded by the Centre National d’Etudes Spatiales (CNES), was to extend the principle of Bayer filters used in color cameras to filters with the same type of geometry but with greatly improved performances similar to those (...)