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Thin film devices are applied to almost all modern scientific instruments, and these devices, especially optical thin film devices, play an essential role in the performances of the instruments, therefore, they are attracting more and more attention. Now there are numerous kinds of thin film devices and their applications are very diversified. The 300-page book, 'Thin Film Device and Applications,' by Prof. K. L. Chopra gives some general ideas, and my paper also outlines the designs, fabrication, and applications of some optical thin film devices made in my laboratory. Optical thin film devices have been greatly developed in the recent decades. Prof. A. Thelan has given a number of papers on the theory and techniques, Prof. H. A. Macleod's book, 'Thin Film Optical Filters,' has concisely concluded the important concepts of optical thin film devices, and Prof. J. A. Dobrowobski has proposed many successful designs for optical thin film devices. Recently, fully-automatic plants make it easier to produce thin film devices with various spectrum requirements, and some companies, such as Balzers, Leybold AG, Satis Vacuum AG, etc., have manufactured such kinds of coating plants for research or mass-production, and the successful example is the production of multilayer antireflection coatings with high stability and reproducibility. Therefore, it could be said that the design of optical thin film devices and coating plants is quite mature. However, we cannot expect that every problem has been solved, the R&D work still continues, the competition still continues, and new design concepts, new techniques, and new film materials are continually developed. Meanwhile, the high-price of fully-automatic coating plants makes unpopular, and automatic design of coating stacks is only the technique for optimizing the manual design according to the physical concepts and experience, in addition, not only the optical system, but also working environment should be taken into account when designing optical thin film devices. Therefore, chemical and mechanical, as well as optical properties of thin films and optical system, should be known. Following is the outline of design method and applications of optical thin film devices according to the classification of our factory, Shanghai Optical Instrument Factory.
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