2019 Topical Meeting on Optical Interference Coatings: Manufacturing Problem Contest [invited]

For the seventh Manufacturing Problem Contest, participants were challenged to fabricate an optical filter with transmittance specified for $s$s-polarization at two incident angles: 10° and 50° from 400 nm to 1100 nm. The problem required that contestants be equally versed in the design, deposition, and measurement of optical filters in order to achieve good results. Eight teams from five different countries participated in the contest using various deposition techniques. The fabricated filters had a total thickness between 8.2 µm and 17.6 µm and a total number of layers from 74 to 255, which were deposited onto one or both sides of the substrate. The performances of the filters were measured by two independent laboratories. The evaluation results were presented at the Topical Meeting on Optical Interference Coatings conference held in Santa Ana Pueblo, New Mexico, in June 2019.