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ExpertChutko has 38 years experience in optical coating, vacuum engineering, ion beam sources and their applications. He managed coating labs in Russia and USA producing a wide range of optical coatings; developed, designed and manufactured technological ion sources for ion beam assisted deposition. He developed and invented the ion beam figuring technology to produce high precise optical surfaces, created the model adequately describing an ion beam as a tool for optical surfaces ion beam figuring. He has a strong vacuum engineering experience; he is the author of VacMaster 2.0 vacuum engineering software. He has long term business relations with Russian manufacturers working in areas of ion beam and plasma equipment (ion sources, DC magnetron sputtering systems, arc evaporators, coating machines).

Expert has a strong experience with modern coating equipment - PVD coating machines based on electron beam evaporation, resistive evaporation, DC magenron sputtering, ion beam assisting systems, and technological ion beam sources. He has strong experience in optical coating design and technology.He also knows methods and equipment for coating process monitoring - quartz crystal and optical techniques. He developed special coating machines for coated glasses mass production, based on using big dimensional DC magnetrons with assisted ion sources and optical monitoring, knows how to upgrade coating machines. He also designed new toolings and methods, for instance, to monitor in situ ITO coating resistance. He also knows principles of coating equipment maintenance and repair. He knows well coating equipment vendors over the world.

He works with different coating materials used for optical coatings - oxides, sulfides, metals. He knows their optical parameters and methods of their deposition in vacuum by evaporation or sputtering.

He knows such coating processes as electron beam evaporation, resistive evaporation, magnetron sputtering, ion beam sputtering (including reactive ones and with ion beam assistance). He has a strong practical experience in optical coating design and coating process development for the main optical coatings - antireflection, mirrors, beam splitters, filters, ITO and others.

He knows how to measure coating thicknesses in situ using quartz crystal and optical methods, and according devices. He also knows techniques to calibrate coating equipment to obtain accurate and repeatable film thicknesses.

He knows electron beam evaporation technologies and electron beam equipment used for optical coating deposition in vacuum. He knows the principles of evaporation and how to work with and maintain the modern electron-beam evaporators. He also knows main electron-beam evaporator vendors.

He knows the main properties of evaporated films and layers stack, their quality specifications; knows how to test their quality and to measure their main parameters using standard techniques.

He has a strong knowledge of high vacuum and processes in it - pumping, out-gassing, gas permeation. He knows how to obtain a high vacuum from atmosphere to 10-8 torr and how to solve assisting problems and overcome troubles.

He knows how to calculate and design high vacuum system taking into account main real factors limiting pumping system possibilities. He is an author of vacuum engineering software VacMaster 2.0 allowing calculate and design practically any high vacuum system with different vacuum chambers and specify needed rough and high vacuum pumps, vacuum components (valves, baffles, mass flow controllers), vacuum chamber material and other important parameters.

He knows modern vacuum equipment - high vacuum pumps (diffusion, turbomolecular, cryogenic), roughing pumps, vacuum components (valves, gates, flange, pipes, feed-throughs, mass flow controllers and other), pressure measurement devices from atmosphere to high vacuum. He has a strong practical experience with that devices applications, knows vendors over the world.

He has strong knowledge and practical experience with optical coatings and optical components quality control in accordance with MIL specifications - spectral parameters, scratch and digs, flatness, parallelism, mechanical and chemical resistance, and others. He knows quality control methods and equipment. He wrote a lot of quality control standard operation procedures and manuals for optical components and optical coatings production.

He knows how to develop and organize coating facility both for lab and mass production. He organized and run optical coating facilities and architectural glasses sputtered coating facilities with a few coating machines and input/outpour quality control areas.

He has a strong knowledge of low vacuum (1000 - 10-3 torr) and how to obtain it. He knows low vacuum systems design, pumps, pressure measurement devices and methods, processes in a low vacuum (glow discharge, for instance).


He helped one of the leading telescope producing companies to solve a problem with telescope mirror coating quality. The client had problem with coating repeatability and spectral parameters. It was shown that the client has problems with coating equipment that leads to thin film density decreasing and absorption increasing, and run calibration. The given recommendations eliminated all troubles.He consulted a few clients regarding high transparent and high conductive ITO coating deposition by reactive electron-beam evaporation. He projected high precise optical surfaces ion beam figuring equipment and technologies for American and French clients. That projects based on his multi-years practical experience, developed ion beam figuring process model, associated software, model of ion beam source as a technological tool, investigated optical materials sputtering parameters, and assisting methods and techniques.He provides high vacuum system engineering and design - pumping time and ultimate pressure calculations with and without gas load, pumps and vacuum components selection, vacuum system design, existing and projected vacuum systems analysis, vacuum components vendors recommendation, vacuum components supply.He provides optical coating design and deposition technology consulting service, coating equipment upgrade (including ion beam technologies).