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Metals with high extinction coefficients exhibit rapid light amplitude decay, increasing reflectance. Aluminum is used for UV, aluminum/silver for visible light, and gold/silver/copper for infrared regions. Chromium and platinum serve in specialized films. Oxidation-prone metals like aluminum, silver, and copper require protective dielectric coatings such as silicon monoxide, magnesium fluoride, silicon dioxide, or aluminum oxide to maintain optical stability.
Metallic film mirrors, which are coated with a metal film layer on a substrate to reflect light, offer a broad reflective spectrum but often exhibit some light absorption. Common metallic film mirrors in the market include aluminum film mirrors, gold film mirrors, and silver film mirrors.
1. Aluminum Film Mirrors
Aluminum film mirrors are typically made by vapor-depositing aluminum onto a high-precision polished planar substrate. Their performance is unaffected by the incident angle of light. Depending on application scenarios, variations include: mirrors with only aluminum film, those with a protective coating over the aluminum film to prevent damage, those with a protective coating to enhance UV reflectance, and those with protective coatings on parallel planar substrates. These mirrors exhibit high reflectance (>90%) from UV to IR wavelengths and have more durable optical coatings compared to other metals.
2. Silver Film Mirrors
Silver film mirrors provide high reflectance across visible to infrared wavelengths. They offer higher reflectance than aluminum film mirrors in visible-IR regions and, unlike dielectric mirrors, are unaffected by light incidence angles. However, silver films adhere poorly to glass substrates, necessitating an additional protective coating to delay oxidation and extend service life.
3. Gold Film Mirrors
Gold film mirrors are primarily used in near-infrared (NIR) and infrared (IR) broad spectra. They employ substrates with high thermal conductivity, strong gold adhesion, and heat resistance, such as silicon-based substrates or float glass. Gold films exhibit extremely high reflectance for IR/NIR light, with unreflected light fully absorbed by the gold rather than transmitting through the substrate. Gold film mirrors demonstrate greater mechanical strength and stability than silver film mirrors.
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