Investigation of optical glass characteristics under the influence of space factors

The paper describes a DF-OPTICS device that the present authors designed for the experimental study of changes in the optical properties of a glass whose surface is exposed to high-speed flows of micron-sized dust particles. The device allows the scattering indicatrix and the spectral transmittance to be automatically measured at each point of the sample with a 0.5-mm increment. Advantages of the developed device include small dimensions and the ability to work in vacuum, allowing it to be used in an accelerator chamber to simulate outer space factors. Experimental results for the K-8 glass put in a microparticle accelerator and bombarded by an aluminum powder PAP-1 with a characteristic size of 1-3 $\mu$m and speeds of 2-8 km / s are presented. The device makes it possible to measure the change of the spectral transmittance of transparent materials in the UV and RGB regions with an accuracy of 0.005%, which exceeds the sensitivity of some known spectrophotometers.