Could you suggest please a transparent material that could be used as a filter for shortwave ultraviolet? I'm using a deuterium lamp (115-400 nm) attached to a vaccum chamber. There is a small window that I'd like to use at same time when the lamp is on but also ensure that the UV light is properly blocked.
Many thanks in advance.
Can you be a little bit more specific about the wavelength range of the spectral window you want to use?
If you want to cut off below 300nm try BK7 or B270 optical glass they are good for vacuum windows
Hi,
Thanks for your suggestions. The manufacturer of that lamp that I'm using says wavelength 115-400 nm so unfortunetely I can't be more spacific than that.
I'm looking for a comercially available material, relaitively cheap so I can have it cut to size in our workshop to save costs :)
Hi Peter,
Thanks for your input.
The lamp is connected to a vacuum chamber that has got a small window. Exactly what I'm trying to do is to protect myself from the harmul UV radiation emitted by this lamp while ocassionally I'm looking through that window. So I'd like to cut off everything below 400 nm.
I am aware of the comercially available filters, although there are usually problmes with them such as wrong dimensions for example. I will take a look at BK7 or B270 optical glass as suggested but was just wondering if any off-the-shelf material would do the job.
Peter is correct most plastics and glasses are UV absorbing. How about using a clear acrylic or polycarbonate window. Not good for high vacuum work, but if viton sealed will give a pretty good vacuum to 1E-6 Torr. If you have a UV -Vis spectrometer you can check on the transmission.
Be careful with cheap 'sun glasses'. Organic polymers usually transmit UV. Therefore coloured 'glasses' may hurt your eyes. As said ordinary glass filters below 360 nm.