Precision Pinholes and Slits
Thorlabs offers precision pinholes with blackened stainless steel, gold-plated copper, tungsten, or molybdenum foils. Our pinholes with stainless steel foils are blackened on both sides for increased absorbance and are available from stock in circles from Ø1 µm to Ø9 mm and squares from 100 µm x 100 µm to 1 mm x 1 mm. Our stainless steel pinholes with a black PVD coating are vacuum compatible and available in 5 μm to 2 mm diameters. Our pinholes with gold-plated copper foils, plated with gold on one side and black PVD coated on the reverse, are available with pinhole diameters from 5 µm to 2 mm. Our pinholes with tungsten foils are uncoated and available with pinhole diameters from 5 µm to 2 mm. Lastly, our pinholes with molybdenum foils have an absorptive polymer coating on the front sides and are available with pinhole diameters from 5 µm to 2 mm. We also offer slits in blackened stainless steel foils from stock with slit widths from 5 to 200 µm.

If you do not see what you need among our stock pinhole and slit offerings, it is also possible to special order pinholes and slits that are made with different foil materials, have different hole sizes and shapes, incorporatoles in one foil, or provide different hole configurations. Please contact Tech Support to discuss your specific needs. For more information on the properties of the bulk materials from which the pinholes are fabricated, see the table below.

Material Properties
Depending on the application, it can be important to consider the material properties of the pinhole or slit. The material used to construct the aperture can have varying levels of melting point, density, and thermal conductivity, as detailed in the table below.

• Stainless steel pinholes and slits are blackened on both sides to increase absorbance. The material properties will be predominantly that of bulk stainless steel.
• Gold-plated copper pinholes have a thin coating of gold on one side of the bulk copper foil. With a beam incident on this side, reflectance will be dominated by the properties of the thin gold coating (77% @ 800 nm), while thermal properties will be predominantly copper-based.
• Molybdenum pinholes have an absorptive coating on the front side. The material properties will be predominantly that of bulk molybdenum.
• Damage threshold data refers to the bulk materials listed here only.

Reflectance
The reflectance of the foil material or coating affects performance in a variety of applications. Below is presented a reflectance graph for all the materials and coatings that are offered with our circular and square precision pinholes, as well as our mounted optical slits. The raw reflectance data can be found here.

It is important to note that the front of the gold-plated copper foil circular precision pinholes have a low-reflectance PVD black coating. The rear of these pinholes leaves the gold-plated copper foil bare. This also occurs on the molybdenum foil circular precision pinholes, which have a low-reflectance absorptive polymer coating on the front and the molybdenum foil is left bare on the back.

Click to Enlarge

Apertures Selection Guide
Aperture Type	Representative Image (Click to Enlarge)	Description	Aperture Sizes Available from Stocka
Single Precision Pinholesa		Circular Pinholes in Stainless Steel Foils	Ø1 µm to Ø9 mm
		Circular Pinholes in Stainless Steel Foils, Vacuum Compatible	Ø5 µm to Ø2 mm
		Circular Pinholes in Gold-Plated Copper Foils	Ø5 µm to Ø2 mm
		Circular Pinholes in Tungsten Foils	Ø5 µm to Ø2 mm
		Circular Pinholes in Molybdenum Foils	Ø5 µm to Ø2 mm
		Square Pinholes in Stainless Steel Foils	100 to 1000 µm Square
Slitsa		Slits in Stainless Steel Foils	3 mm Slit Lengths: 5 to 500 µm Widths 10 mm Slit Lengths: 20 to 500 µm Widths
		Double Slits in Stainless Steel Foils	3 mm Slit Lengths with 40, 50, or 100 µm Widths, Spacing of 3X or 6X the Slit Width
Half-Apertures		Mounted, Half-Aperture Foils	Half-Apertures for Knife-Edge Scan Measurements
Annular Apertures		Annular Aperture Obstruction Targets on Quartz Substrates with Chrome Masks	Ø1 mm Apertures with ε Ratiosb from 0.05 to 0.85 Ø2 mm Aperture with ε Ratiob of 0.85
Pinhole Wheels		Manual, Mounted, Chrome-Plated Fused Silica Disks with Lithographically Etched Pinholes	Each Disk has 16 Pinholes from Ø25 µm to Ø2 mm and Four Annular Apertures (Ø100 µm Hole, 50 µm Obstruction)
		Motorized Pinhole Wheels with Chrome-Plated Glass Disks with Lithographically Etched Pinholes	Each Disk has 16 Pinholes from Ø25 µm to Ø2 mm and Four Annular Apertures (Ø100 µm Hole, 50 µm Obstruction)
Pinhole Kits		Stainless Steel Precision Pinhole Kits	Kits of Ten Circular Pinholes in Stainless Steel Foils Covering Ø5 µm to Ø9 mm

• Precision pinholes and slits can be special ordered with different aperture sizes, foil materials, shapes, and hole distributions than those offered from stock. Please contact Tech Support with inquiries.
• Ratio of the Obstruction Diameter to the Pinhole Diameter