Large filters for wide-field survey telescope LSST

The LSST design foresees the use of six wide-band large optical filters that can alternatively be moved in front of the CCD camera. Each of the six filters has a different band-pass covering all the wavelengths from 300 nm to 1200 nm. The way to achieve this is to coat an optimized optical thin films stack on a filter substrate. Each filter requires a specific design using specific appropriate materials. The main characteristics of these filters, that constitute a real technological challenge, are: their relatively large size - their radii of curvature (about 5.6 m) that represent a sagitta of 12,5 mm that increases the uniformity complexity, the large rejection band requirements with transmission lower than 0.01 % out of the band and a transmission of 95 % over the band-pass. This paper proposes to show the problematic and the results obtained at LMA (Laboratoire des Materiaux Avances-FRANCE) to the purpose of realizing these filters using the IBS (Ion Beam Sputtering) deposition technique. The results obtained with High-Pass/Low-Pass structures will be presented. Experimental results will be shown concerning the R-band filter (552-691 nm). An overview of the work to be done to realize transmittance map over large filters will be given.