Thin Films and their Applications in Military and Civil Sectors

About the Monograph

This monograph is intended to provide an overview of the design and development of thin films and their deposition techniques for various applications. Thin films possess a wide range of applications in both civil as well as military sectors. This includes their use for protection of materials from corrosion, oxidation, and wear, increasing transmission or reflection in a certain wavelength region, and also in filters, colour separation, fire-resistant coatings, high-temperature superconductors, silicon devices, anti-fog, and memory devices. This book is aimed at creating awareness about the applications of thin films in military and civil sectors, which are classified as scientific, industrial, and consumer. This book may be useful for engineers, researchers and young scientists, presenting them the state-of-the-art about thin films and their deposition techniques. This book also provides an overview of the R&D efforts of LASTEC in the area of thin films.

About the Authors

Dr Kamal Nain Chopra retired as Scientist G from Laser Science and Technology Centre (LASTEC), Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO). Dr Chopra received MSc (Physics), MTech. (Optoelectronics), and PhD (Physics), all from Indian Institute of Technology Delhi, New Delhi. He has worked in School of Thin Films Coatings, University of St. Jerome, France, and Thin Films Coatings Division, University of Innsbruck, Austria. Besides, he has got training in Thin Films Industries-M/s Balzers, Liechtenstein (Switzerland) and M/s Elettrorava, Torino, Italy. His major achievements are in the areas of design and growth of thin films for a range of laser and optoelectronic devices and systems developed at LASTEC over the past 25 years. These coatings have found applications in a range of state-of-the-art systems like Ring Laser Gyros, Drishti Eye care laser, Alexandrite laser, Nd:YAG laser-based systems and so on. His other important contributions are establishment of thin films coating facility, which include Balzers Vacuum Coating Unit with electron beam deposition facilities, Elettrorava Dual ion-beam Sputtering Unit, and Hind High Vacuum Coating Unit. He has authored about 110 publications in journals, symposia and conferences of national and international repute.

Shri Anil Kumar Maini, Director, LASTEC, DRDO, received BE (Electronics) from Punjab Engineering College, Punjab University, Chandigarh, in 1977. He joined DRDO in 1978 and has accumulated more than 32 years of R&D experience in all aspects of product design and development related to military optoelectronics and electro-optic countermeasures (EOCM) systems. His areas of expertise include optoelectronic simulator and sensor systems, laser systems, power electronics, digital electronics and related technologies. He has spearheaded the development of low power non-lethal directed energy laser systems for low intensity conflicts applications. He has been at the hub of the development of complex test systems for seeker heads of electro-optically guided precision-guided munitions (PGM) which have been successfully field tested by Services. He also carried out pioneering work in the indigenous development of dual-role EOCM laser systems for anti-sensor and anti-personnel applications, family of laser warning sensors for defensive EOCM and programmable laser target designators for field evaluation of laser-guided bomb delivery systems. He has authored 10 books and about 150 technical articles and papers in national, international journals, magazines, and conferences. He has two patents to his credit.