Materials for multiband lenses, VIS-MWIR and SWIR-LWIR

NRL is developing new materials that transmit across wide wavelength ranges and will present recent results. MILTRAN is a new rugged optical ceramic that transmits visible through LWIR and is 3.5 times harder than ZnS and is well suited as an internal lens element. NRL-series moldable glasses transmit SWIR through LWIR and may be bonded to each other in an adhesive-free thermal process. NRL-200-series glasses transmit visible through MWIR and expand the glass map for multispectral lens designs. These new materials enable greater flexibility for designers of lenses for advanced defense applications and potentially reduce the size, weight and cost of next-generation optics.