Custom-fabricated sapphire, germanium and zinc-selenide optics for use in gimballed systems and front surface protection in unmanned air and undersea vehicles are available from Meller Optics, Inc. of Providence, Rhode Island (US).
Meller Optics for unmanned vehicles features sapphire, which is second only to diamond in terms of hardness and provides outboard surface protection for imaging sensors by withstanding sand, saltwater and other fast-moving particulates. Optics for gimballed systems include sapphire, germanium and zinc-selenide for applications from the mid infrared (IR) to far IR and they can all be fabricated to customer specifications as lenses, mirrors and windows.
Available in a wide range of shapes and sizes from 0.25-inch to 10-inch diameter with varying wall thicknesses, Meller Optics for unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) and unmanned underwater vehicle (UUV) applications can incorporate stepped edges and elliptical edge-shaping, holes, slots and wedges for mounting. Flatness can be held to 1/10th wave in the visible and less than 2 arc seconds in parallelism, with surface finishes from 60-40 to 10-5 scratch-dig, depending upon material and configuration.