Refractive properties of nuclear microfilters

The characteristics of the light transmission (at the wavelengths 0.3-5 mu m) and refraction in the spectral region from 360 to 950 nm have been analy zed for xenon ion irradiated PolyEthyleneTerePhthalate (PET) films after th eir chemical treatment and further metallization. A correlation between mac rokinetics of the chemical treatment and changes in the optical properties of the nuclear microfilters formed has been found. Consecutive growth of th e refraction coefficient from 15-17% to 40-45% as well as lowering of the t ransmittance of the etched PET-films was accompanied by micropore formation . The absence of any spectral dependence of the refraction coefficient at t he wavelengths studied was observed in the Xe-ion irradiated and chemically treated PET-films. Surface metallization of the PET-films (silver) resulte d in a twofold increase of the refraction coefficients and changes slightly the character of the spectral dependence for refraction coefficient in the visible region of the optical spectrum. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.