Like household mirrors, copper and aluminum optical mirrors are designed to reflect light. Unlike the typical mirror, however, which is painted with a thin layer of metal on the back of a glass substrate, optical mirrors are coated on the front, rendering them more reflective and more accurate in conveying light.
These high-performance mirrors are essential parts of many technological and scientific instruments. In addition to wavelengths in the visible light spectrum, some optical mirrors reflect infrared and ultraviolet wavelengths as well — copper reflects infrared light, and aluminum reflects ultraviolet. Because of their unique properties, copper and aluminum mirrors are sought out by professionals and businesses in life sciences, bio-medical, metrology, astronomy, engineering, AI, VR and many other industries.
At Shanghai Optics, we make standard and top notch customized copper and aluminum mirrors for a variety of demanding applications.
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Optical Mirror Manufacturing Process:
Single Point Diamond Turning(SPDT) is a manufacturing technique for producing off-axis parabolic (OAP) mirrors, off-axis elliptical (OAE) mirrors, freeform surface mirrors, and other precision metal optical components. Off-axis focusing mirrors are aberration-free across a broadband wavelength range, making them ideal for use in instrumentation and laser systems.
Shanghai Optics offers build-to-print or custom capabilities to meet your application needs. Whether standard or custom, our expert optical design and diamond turning staff can develop customized solutions incorporating custom sizes and shapes, a variety of metal mirror coatings, or other custom modifications. Our diamond turning experts are experienced at optimizing designs for cost-effective manufacturing. Contact SO today to speak with our experts to receive the quote.
Shanghai Optics Product and Service offering:
SO Offers oxygen free high conductivity copper (OFHC) mirror or aluminum alloy mirror. The mounting interface is designed with kinematic and flexure features. Kinematic design will allow you to replace the mirror with great precision without repetitive alignment. Flexure design will eliminate the deformation caused by the mounting surface.
A special cooling channel can be designed into the back of the mirror to allow efficient removal ing of heat that is generated in a high power laser system. The cooling channel design can be optimized with finite element analysis for the best performance.
• Precision engineered mirror mount is also available for application convenience and optimum performance.
• Normal and vacuum environment versions are available for all mirrors and mirror mounts.
• Complete system can be designed per customer’s request.
• Optics system design, component fabrication, and system integration are available as a fully integrated service.
• Automated system is also available to the customer in both normal and vacuum environment.
Mirror Type:
• High Precision Optical Flats
• Toroidal Mirror
• Off-Axis Parabolic
• Asphere
• Axicon
• Freeform Optics
• Integrated Beam Shaping Mirrors
What Makes Copper and Aluminum Mirrors Important?
Copper and aluminum optical mirrors play important roles in modern scientific instrumentation. Many devices need to reflect and direct energy to function and collect accurate data. However, regular mirrors cannot provide the level of reflectivity that many applications require. For specialized uses, copper and aluminum mirrors are often the best options.
Copper mirrors are ideal for high-power laser applications. The metal effectively reflects red and infrared light and dissipates the excess heat they generate, allowing copper mirrors to retain physical strength and high damage thresholds.
Aluminum mirrors, on the other hand, work well for reflecting larger light wavelengths. NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope relies on an aluminum mirror to reflect not only visible light but ultraviolet light as well. These capabilities make aluminum the metal of choice for astronomers.
In addition to featuring uniquely reflective metals, quality copper and aluminum mirrors support scientists and technicians with high levels of accuracy and low levels of aberration thanks to a specialized manufacturing process.
How Optical Mirrors Are Produced
For an optical mirror to provide accurate and reliable results, it must have a smooth, highly-polished surface and carefully engineered shape to promote reflectivity in the desired wavelengths. The copper and aluminum mirror manufacturing and special coating process, as a result, requires expert production staff and state-of-the-art equipment.
At Shanghai Optics, we’ve optimized our manufacturing and coating process to meet our customers’ high expectations. In additional to our traditional polishing method, our production staff members have experience using the Single Point Diamond Turning method for optical mirror manufacturing. Using this method, we can produce aberration-free mirrors in a variety of shapes, including toroidal, off-axis parabolic, off-axis elliptical and freeform surface.
To meet specific customer requirements, we offer custom shapes, sizes and other modifications. Our manufacturing capabilities include:
- Mirrors and mirror mounts suitable for vacuum as well as normal environments
- Oxygen-free, high-conductivity copper mirrors
- Mirrors with cooling channels for high-energy applications
- Custom optics system design, fabrication and integration
After manufacturing, polishing and coating under strict ISO 9001 standards, we test our aluminum and copper mirrors with cutting-edge metrology equipment to ensure performance that meets the most precise specifications.
Customized Copper and Aluminum Mirrors From S.O.
With the ability to accurately reflect a broad range of light wavelengths, copper and aluminum mirrors find use in many scientific and technical applications. For the most challenging of these applications, you need high-quality customized mirrors.
S.O. has more than 55 years of experience designing and manufacturing custom optics for businesses around the world. Our custom products provide a high level of performance at a competitive price. To help ensure that you’re satisfied with the results, we’ll provide first article inspection and worry-free returns on any order that fails to meet your specifications.
Request a free quote today or contact a Shanghai Optics representative to learn more about our optic mirror customization and manufacturing process.
