Patent 7683450 was granted and assigned to Corning Incorporated on March, 2010 by the United States Patent and Trademark Office.
The invention is directed to preparing optical elements having a thin, smooth, dense coating or film thereon, and a method for making such coating or film. The coated element has a surface roughness of <1.0 nm rms. The coating materials include hafnium oxide or a mixture of hafnium oxide and another oxide material, for example silicon dioxide. The method includes the use of a reverse mask to deposit the coating or film on a rotating substrate.