Patent ID: 8277877

Claim:
A method for coating first and second facets of an optical device, the method comprising: beaming onto the first facet an ion beam having a first energy so as to coat the first facet with a protective layer of a first material, which protective layer is only a portion of a full thickness of a full first coating, wherein the protective layer is formed in a chamber; rotating the optical device in the chamber about 180 degrees; beaming onto the second facet an ion beam so as to fully coat the second facet with all layers of a second coating to provide full thickness of the full second coating as one of an anti-reflective coating or a high-reflective coating, at least a portion of the layers of the second coating being applied with the ion beam having a second energy that is higher than the first energy in the chamber; rotating the optical device in the chamber about 180 degrees; and beaming onto the protective player an ion beam at a third energy so as to coat the protective layer of the first facet with additional layers of the first material in order to form the full thickness of the full first coating as the other of the anti-reflective coating or high-reflective coating, wherein the additional layers are applied at the third energy that is higher than the first energy in the chamber.