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Benefits of Sapphire Optics

Sapphire CapabilitiesThere are many benefits to sapphire windows and sapphire lenses over traditional glass optics. Sapphire optical components outperform and outlast their fused silica and quartz counterparts within sapphire’s transmission range of 190nm to 5000nm.

Major Advantages:

  • Hardest natural substance next to diamond
  • Much stronger than other optical materials (65,000 modulus of rupture)
  • Extreme surface hardness and scratch resistance
  • Highly resistant to wear from harsh environmental conditions
  • Very wide optical transmission band from UV to Mid IR
  • Extremely high melt temperature
  • High electrical resistance
  • Chemically inert
  • Totally unaffected by all chemicals except some very hot caustics
  • High thermal conductivity for a non-conductor, even better than copper at cryogenic temperatures
  • High dielectric constant

Optical Sapphire is:

  • Synthetic sapphire
  • A duplication of natural sapphire chemically, physically and optically, but without nature’s contaminants or inclusions
  • Water clear
  • A triagonal, (hexagonal) crystal system
  • A negative, uniaxial crystal