Effects of Pressure Sintering Parameters on IR Transmittance of MgF2 Optical Ceramics

Optical ceramics forms an important section of technology in optical industry. Magnesium fluoride is one of these optical ceramics, which has various applications such as infra-red domes. In comparison with other optical materials MgF2 has high durability and suitable mechanical and thermal properties. These windows must be transparent in the suitablerange and transmit high percent of incident IR beam towards the detector. In addition to optical properties these windows must have suitable physical, mechanical, thermal, and chemical properties. In this study MgF2 polycrystalline samples were produced using hot pressing process and effect of process parameters and microstructure on optical properties and densification were studied. Results showd that main problem for achievinghigh transmittance is removing porosity and control of grain growth.Although surface reflection greatly decreased transmittance, this effect can be removed by adequate optical polishing