Recommended Configuration with a 1.0 mm Window
for Balanced Dispersion in Transmitted and Reflected
Beam of 50:50 Ultrafast Beamsplitter (Only Necessary
for Sub-50 fs Pulses)

Features

• Ø1/2" and Ø1" Windows
• 1.0, 3.0, or 5.0 mm mm Thickness
• Flat Transmission from 300 nm to 3 µm
• Nearly Identical Material Properties to UV Fused Silica
• Ideal for Dispersion Management in Ultrafast Applications

These uncoated windows are fabricated from Infrasil^®†, a type of optical quartz. Infrasil is a popular alternative to UV fused silica since the two materials have nearly identical mechanical and optical properties. Relative to UV fused silica, Infrasil offers increased internal transmission around 1380 nm, flat transmission from the UV to the mid-IR, and nearly identical dispersion. The plot above shows the total transmission of a sample window from 200 nm to 3.2 µm.

Please note that these optics are significantly thinner than most windows, making them more delicate than their thicker counterparts. They are also too thin for standard setscrew-based optic mounts. In applications where one of these windows is being placed in an optic mount, it should be secured using a retaining ring, as is done in Fixed Optic Mounts.

Usage in Ultrafast Applications
When one of the 1.0 mm thick windows is combined with our UFBS5050 Ultrafast Beamsplitter, the transmitted and reflected arms of the beamsplitter will have nearly equal group delay dispersion (GDD). For our other Ultrafast Beamsplitters, our 1.0 mm thick Infrasil windows are not thick enough to balance the dispersion exactly, but they will still improve dispersion matching between the beams. When using our 4.0 mm thick beamsplitters, the 3.0 mm or 5.0 mm thick thick Infrasil windows (Item #s UDP053 and UDP105) may be used to provide some dispersion compensation, although it was not specifically designed to match those items.

†Infrasil is a registered trademark of Heraeus Quarzglas.