Atomic layer deposition (ALD) enhanced far-to-mid-infrared absorptive optical control coatings

A method of manufacturing a far-to-mid-infrared absorptive optical coating, the method comprising:

• providing an optically opaque conductive substrate;
• applying a primer to a surface of the optically opaque conductive substrate to form a primer layer;
• coating a conductively loaded dielectric media on the optically opaque conductive substrate at the primer layer;
• depositing a plurality of microspheres or microbubbles at random to form a monolayer of the plurality of microspheres or microbubbles;
• depositing a monolayer of a metal film on an outer surface of each of the plurality of microspheres or microbubbles by an atomic layer deposition (ALD) process to form a coated absorptive surface on the plurality of microspheres or microbubbles;
• applying the monolayer of the plurality of coated microspheres or microbubbles to the conductively loaded dielectric media;
• and
• curing the monolayer of the plurality of coated microspheres or microbubbles coated on the conductively loaded dielectric media to result in the far-to-mid infrared absorptive optical coating which provides wavelength-scale absorptive-scatters and in-band impedance matching at a surface of the monolayer of the plurality of coated microspheres or microbubbles.