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AssigneeThe United States of America as represented by the United States Department of Energy
InventorsJohn R. Pitts, Terence M. Thomas, Alvin W. Czanderna
Estimating the term…
A method for adhering silver to a glass substrate for producing mirrors includes attaining a silicon enriched substrate surface by reducing the oxygen therein in a vacuum and then vacuum depositing a silver layer onto the silicon enriched surface. The silicon enrichment can be attained by electron beam bombardment, ion beam bombardment, or neutral beam bombardment. It can also be attained by depositing a metal, such as aluminum, on the substrate surface, allowing the metal to oxidize by pulling oxygen from the substrate surface, thereby leaving a silicon enriched surface, and then etching or eroding the metal oxide layer away to expose the silicon enriched surface. Ultraviolet rays can be used to maintain dangling silicon bonds on the enriched surface until covalent bonding with the silver can occur. This disclosure also includes encapsulated mirrors with diffusion layers built therein. One of these mirrors is assembled on a polymer substrate.
The method of adhering silver to the surface of a glass substrate, comprising the steps of:
A process for forming a silvered-glass mirror having a silver layer substantially impervious to separation due to environmental weathering, said process comprising the steps of:
A silvered-glass mirror capable of providing protection against moisture and other forms of environmental weathering having a structure fabricated by a process comprising the steps of:
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.