Effects of Ion Beam Deposition on the Optical Scattering of Metal Coatings

Reduction of optical scattering is becoming a concern in the space and astronomical applications. Substrate surface roughness, substrate bulk material and the film coating microroughness contribute to the scattering. In the case of metallic coated substrates: only the substrate surface roughness and the coating roughness will contribute to the increase of optical scattering. In this paper we examine the effects of ion beam processes on the optical scattering and surface microroughness of super polished substrates coated with metallic Platinum.