Stress is a universal phenomenon in thin film deposition. It has important effect on structure and performance of thin film. In order to improve optical and mechanical performance of filters, the stress in ZnS/ Ge optical thin film and stress control technology are studied by theory and experiments. It is found that ion beam bombardment and vacuum annealing affect the stress in thin film. The stress in ZnS films is compressive stress. Ion beam assisted deposition makes the stress uniformity in ZnS films. Vacuum annealing makes compressive stress in ZnS films half of the value before annealing. Finite element method analysis results of ZnS/ Ge multilayer thin films show the thermal stress has larger value on edge of thin film and substrate. Thin film has larger deformation on edge. The results show that ZnS/ Ge multilayer thin film filters have less compressive stress by optimum deposition and different stress films. The average stress is 0. 1 MPa respectively. |