Atomic Layer Deposition for Coating of Complex 3D Optics

Atomic Layer Deposition (ALD) is a chemical vapor coating technique that has recently been adapted for precision laser optics to perform highly conformal multilayer coatings on complex 3D substrates like hemispheres, axicons or multi-sided prisms. In our brief report, we explain some ALD fundamentals and describe the way from idea and single-layer films to simple AR (anti-reflection) coatings and even more ambitious designs, like non-polarizing beam splitters, performed on complex optical substrates.