BBT-Materials Processing, s.r.o.

Description

BBT-Materials Processing, s. r. o (established in 1995) is a private SME technological company dedicated to development and production of high-performance IR polarization optics, phase delay components and acousto-optical substrates for a wide range of high- tech applications.

Competences and capabilities

Our group is the world´s first to have discovered mercurous halides single crystals and their extraordinary properties. Mercurous chloride (Calomel, Hg₂Cl₂ ) is a unique material for IR optics, acousto-optics, polarizers, high power laser applications, etc.

We are developing Calomel high efficiency infrared polarizers and acousto-optical tuneable filters (AOTF) for hyperspectral imaging in the thermal infrared.  BBT´s devices were operating on-board Salyut 6 - Soyuz and MIR orbital laboratories for 17 years!

Products/Services

• Polarizers (several types)
• Scrambles
• Polarizing beamsplitters
• Phase delay prisms
• Wedges
• Acousto-optical tuneable filter (TRL 4)
• Delay lines
• Laboratory measurements
• Custom products

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Major Space Projects & References

• INTERKOSMOS – MORAVA I, II and III (1976-97) on board Salyut 6-Sojuz and MIR – material science.
• Space furnaces CSK and TITUS for MIR and FOTON.
• TITUS MPP Multi-Purpose Platform for ISS (International Space Station)
• RIM-MIR, TES and TEST-TES: A recalescence of Ag-Ge alloys on MIR using the CSK-1 furnace.
• MIR’92 (1992-3), EuroMIR’94 (1994-5), EuroMIR’95 (1995-6), GermanMIR 97 (1997), MIR 99 – PERSEUS (1999) - material experiments on MIR using the CSK-1 and TITUS.
• DEMON (2011-2014) Development of Quality Evaluation Methods for Calomel Optical Elements
• NAOMI (2010-12): New acousto-optic device based on calomel for hyperspectral imaging in space applications
• IAPETHOS (2014-16): Infrared advanced polarizer for Space applications
• THETIS (2016-17): TIR Hyperspectral Imager based on the Calomel AOTF (Acousto-Optical Tuneable Filter)
• CALIOPE (2018-2020) Calomel-based TIR optical AOTF breadboarding
• ECLIPSE (2018-2020) Development and production of Calomel IR polarizer and testing in relevant environment
• IAPETHOS2 (2018-2021) Infrared Advanced Polarizers for Space and other Applications 2
• TWINS (2022): Birefringent Fourier transform spectrometer for space applications
• Other projects within KONTAKT, PRODEX, FP7,EUROSTARS etc.
• IRCAPOL (under preparation) Development of infrared polarizing camera for EO
• VEGA (under preparation) Increasing the TRL level of the acousto-optical tunable filter based calomel for hyperspectral imagers and commercial applications
• BIRD (under preparation) Development and production of optical and acousto-optical components based on mercurous bromide

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Space Related Equipment, Labs & Certificates

• Crystal growth units (VPT method)
• Crystal optics manufacturing.
• HW for testing and quality evaluation of optical and acousto-optical components:
  • Conoscope
  • Interferometer
  • IR Spectrometer
  • 2D HP imaging filter
  • HP integral measurement
  • Integral extinction ratio (VIS, IR)
  • COHERENT 9,3µm CO2
  • laser system (17W)
  • Optical microscope
  • Tyndall scattering
  • 2D optical Fourier transform
  • 2D depolarization imaging
  • MTF/PSF
• RoHS for polarization optics based on calomel (under negotiation)