Optical Tests of Thin Plastic Films
Abstract
We have studied the optical characteristics of several plastic films. Interferometry of large (1.4-m diameter) and small (10 cm) samples shows that thin polyester (Mylar) films have RMS wavefront deviations small enough ( Lambda/20 Optical Path Difference) that they are essentially diffraction limited. Although they introduce scattered light, it is less than the scattered light from a glass mirror and the atmosphere. Mylar is strongly birefringent, a serious inconvenience for measurements of polarized light. Besides scattering light, Mylar absorbs and reflects light and spectrally modulates it with small ripples to a Fabry-Perot effect. (SECTION: Instrumentation and Data Analysis)
- Publication:
-
Publications of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific
- Pub Date:
- December 1992
- DOI:
- 10.1086/133114
- Bibcode:
- 1992PASP..104.1239B
- Keywords:
-
- Fabry-Perot Interferometers;
- Optical Properties;
- Polymeric Films;
- Telescopes;
- Thin Films;
- Atmospheric Windows;
- Performance Tests;
- Plastic Coatings;
- Wave Fronts;
- Optics;
- INSTRUMENTATION: MISCELLANEOUS