David Allred

We are working with NASA groups to make environmentally stable the fluoride overcoats on broadband Al mirrors with far UV function for space observatories. Metal fluorides of the low Z elements are the only barriers for Al that are sufficiently transparent in the far UV. LiF is best below 115 nm but is hygroscopic. The tools used atomic level understanding are ellipsometry, SEM and XPS. For articles see https://physics.byu.edu/department/publications/allred & https://scholarsarchive.byu