What are the Various Applications of Optical Films across Different Fields?

Though many years ago, the application of optical films began, human minds did not recognize the importance of using them at that point in time. However, with time, the use of optical films has been increasing across semiconductor manufacturing industries, in the field of optics, and various other optoelectronic technologies to manufacture new optical instruments with wider applications. The inherent physical properties of optical films are the key reason behind their different and unique functionalities.

Technically, optical films are the thin and uniform dielectric coatings that are attached to the surface of an optical device to enhance its optical properties, such as propagation path, reflection, absorbance, resistance, and transmission. The main characteristics of optical films are smooth surface, transparent, and an array of refractive indices. Because of these exclusive characteristics, optical films are broadly used in microscopy, photocatalysis, solar cells, mirrors, computers, TVs, phones, and many more.

What do Optical Film Coatings Include?

• Optical film coatings have a plethora of constituents which are discussed below:
• Index-Matched Indium Tin Oxide
• AR (anti-reflective) coatings
• Beam Splitters
• Dichroic filters
• Indium Tin Oxide
• Precision hot mirrors
• Cold mirrors
• Front and Back Surface Mirrors
• Neutral Density filters
• Ultraviolet filters
• Infrared filters
• Band-pass color filters
• Metal coatings

What are the Various Applications of Optical Films?

Optical films allow the interaction of electromagnetic radiation at different wavelengths with the deposited functional layer. In addition, these have unique properties such as changing optical paths, separating light components, adjusting light intensity, allowing only selected wavelength to pass depending on the need, and many more. This is the reason why optical films are used for several applications. Some of them are discussed below:

• Photovoltaic Sector: Optical films have a high absorption coefficient of the absorber layers, this is why it is used across the photovoltaic sector to reduce the material thickness, and material cost. Furthermore, these films have multiple junction devices to capture most of the solar spectrum which is beneficial to increasing the conversion efficiency.
   
• Lenses: Generally, lenses are coated with optical films (anti-reflective coatings) to reduce the amount of light reflected by the interface between the air and glass. In addition, these films help to prevent the flare associated with the use of uncoated lenses. Therefore, optical films are widely used in binoculars, cameras, telescopes, etc.
   
• Used for Protective Glasses: Optical films can be used as protective layers against various harmful radiations with specific wavelength intervals to maintain the possibility of seeing through. Because of these properties, optical films are used for buildings windows, airplane windows, and many more to block thermal IR radiation.
   
• Microscopy: In biological fields, to study the nature, and characteristics of micro-organisms high precision lenses are required. As the optical lenses have the surface plasmon resonance, these help researchers and scientists perform activities with high accuracy.
   
• Used for LEDs/OLEDs: As optical lenses include transparent conductive coatings, these are used to supply energy to the devices such as LCDs or OLEDs to avoid fogging and ice formation with continuous heat supply to the transparent surfaces.
   
• Used for Ceramic Materials: As optical films have dichroic filters as an inherent property, which is the combination of specified refractive index and thin film thickness, these are used for coatings of the filament-based lamp, halogen floodlights, and many more. Furthermore, the optical films are used for various decorative applications and in forgery prevention such as detecting fake currency notes.

The Future Insights of the Optical Films Market

With the increasing prevalence of large-format displays which increases the demand for continuous implementation of technical innovations, the global optical films market is expected to see striking growth in the forthcoming years. The market is anticipated to generate a revenue of $20,647.30 million and rise at a CAGR of 8.00% during the analysis timeframe from 2022 to 2030. However, the high investment costs of optical films may hamper the growth of the market in the upcoming years.

Key Message Take Away

In this era of technological advancements, the demand for optical films is expected to increase in the upcoming years along with the rapidly growing demand for smart gadgets, high-precision display screens, and enhanced camera qualities. Furthermore, the increasing demand for optoelectronic thin-film chips and flat-panel displays is expected to thrive a significant growth of the market in the near future.

About the Author(s)

     

Rosy Behera

Rosy Behera holds a bachelor’s degree in Electrical and Electronics Engineering and is currently working as a content writing professional. She loves to portray her thoughts and ideas via her command on words. Grabbing her audience’s attention with her creative write ups is one of her biggest assets. Apart from writing, she is a certified “Odisi” dancer and has done Gardharva in Drawing, Painting and Arts. She always explores new things through travel and is a big foodie.