What are the special properties of lithium fluoride?
Dec,21,23
An inorganic compound with the chemical formula LiF, lithium fluoride is the lithium salt of hydrofluoric acid. This white solid is a simple ionic compound. It has a structure similar to sodium chloride, but is difficult to dissolve in water. It is mainly used as a component of molten salts. As a material with high UV transmittance, lithium fluoride is used in special UV optics. Lithium fluoride is also used in X-ray monochromator plates, where its lattice distance makes it a very effective analytical crystal.
Special properties of lithium fluoride:
* Its birefringence should be considered before selecting this material for optical design;
*It is resistant to thermal and mechanical shock;
*It is twice as hard as CaF2, but only half as hard as Ge;
*Typical applications: thermal imaging, geographic, excimer laser applications;
*Product fabrication: lenses, aspheric lenses, windows, wedges, prisms;
*Surface finish: Typical specifications for IR surface quality are 40-20 scratch excavation in the 0.75 to μm spectral range and 60-40 or 80-50 scratch excavation in the 3-7 μm region depending on system performance requirements;
*AR coating option: Lithium fluoride is capable of applying AR coatings in the IR, but usually without much improvement in transmission due to its low refractive index and high transmittance.
