A requirement exists to provide ocular protection to troops at risk from laser energy exposure and ballistic fragements while maintaining essential visual performance. Optical filters based on holographic mirrors or thin film interference filters are effective in blocking laser beams but are fragile and are subject to degradation from ambient moisture. This laboratory proposes to make thin film interference filters from crosslinked organic polymers, in a rugate structure with a smoothly varying, cyclic, index of refraction and no interfaces for delamination or moisture attack - one solid, monolithic, polymer film. Manufacture requires only simple equipment. We have demonstrated the fabrication of prototype interference filters from organic polymers, on the laboratory benchtop, literally in mason jars.
