Barium fluoride (BaF2) lens crystals are cubic and possess excellent moisture resistance. Their melting point is 1280°C, enabling BaF2 components to operate at extremely high temperatures. Their refractive index exhibits minimal variation over a wide wavelength range, resulting in a wide transmission range, with a transmittance exceeding 90% from 0.2 μm to 10 μm. BaF2 exhibits stable optical and mechanical properties, making it a suitable material for SWIR lens components. Furthermore, its excellent scintillation properties (the crystals can simultaneously measure energy and time spectra with high resolution) hold broad application prospects in high-energy physics, nuclear physics, and nuclear medicine.

Optical barium fluoride lens applications and usage bands

X-ray inspection: Barium fluoride has high transparency in the X-ray band and is a commonly used window material and lens material in X-ray inspection equipment. In scenarios such as industrial non-destructive testing and medical X-ray diagnosis, barium fluoride lenses allow X-rays to pass smoothly while focusing or collimating them to more clearly observe the internal structure or pathology of the inspected object, thereby improving detection accuracy.

Ultraviolet spectral analysis: Barium fluoride also has good light transmittance in the ultraviolet band and can be used as a window or lens in ultraviolet spectrometers. It can effectively focus and transmit ultraviolet light, allowing the instrument to accurately measure the absorption characteristics of substances in the ultraviolet band, and then infer the chemical structure, purity and other information of the substances. It is widely used in research and analysis work in the fields of chemistry, materials science, environmental monitoring, etc.

Laser Processing: In some laser processing applications involving UV lasers, such as laser cutting, welding, and drilling, barium fluoride lenses can be used to focus the UV laser beam, achieving precise positioning of the processing area and efficient processing. Their excellent light transmittance in the UV band ensures that the laser energy can be effectively transmitted to the processing material.

Laser optical system: It can be used as a lens element in the laser optical system to focus and collimate the ultraviolet laser beam, ensuring the normal operation of the laser system and the effective transmission of laser energy. It is more common in laser application scenarios in scientific research, industry and other fields.

X-ray band: In the X-ray band, barium fluoride has a certain degree of transparency to X-rays with a wide wavelength range, roughly in the range of 0.01nm - 10nm. However, its transparency will vary with the change of wavelength. It may have higher transparency near some specific wavelengths. The specific transparency should be determined according to actual conditions and application requirements.

Ultraviolet band: In the ultraviolet region, barium fluoride lenses usually have good light transmittance in the 185nm - 400nm band, which is its main advantage band in ultraviolet optical applications. It can effectively focus and transmit ultraviolet light in this band.