Sensitivity of stellar guidance optics is limited by reflection of stray light inside the optical system. improvement by 50-100% or more can be obtained with a black coating, discovered by charles feldman at johns hopkins applied physics labroatory, consisting of submicroscopic columns of amorphous… More

Surfaces of both transmissive and reflective optical components are made of comparatively soft materials (plastics, optical glasses, halide crystals, infrared-transmitting materials, aluminum, silver) and vulnerable to scratching and chemical deterioration through environmental attack and abrasion… More

The cubic crystalline phase of carbon (diamond) and the analogous structure of boron nitride (cbn, borazon) are the hardest known solids. to make use of this harness for increased wear resistance, coatings of "diamondlike" carbon have been widely studied. artech has developed a technique for… More