Hi John,

I’ve used Acktar black coatings for a similar purpose in the past.  See this press release: Acktar black coatings.  Their coatings are part of the OpticStudio IS Scatter Catalog.  You can try contacting them to see if they also have a file for raw or machined aluminum.

Not sure what wavelength range you are using, but beware that conventional black anodized aluminum becomes very reflective above 700 nm (see: Reflectivity of Various Black Materials)

In addition to Acktar, a good option in the NIR is Pioneer Optical Black Aluminum Anodizing.  I think Pioneer can provide an example reflectance spectrum for their product, but not sure about an *.isx file.

PS: Hopefully someone from Zemax can comment on your question about the availability of scattering files from OpticsBuilder for use in OpticStudio.

Hi @John.Hygelund - In addition to what Jeff provided above, I received permission from our OpticsBuilder product manager (@Lisa C) to share the scatter profiles with you if you’re interested in using what we ship with that program. Generally, the profiles were derived from OpticStudio scatter profiles. Here’s a list of the derivations:

Note: Due to the size restrictions on our forums, I had to split the profiles into two attachments . 

Perfect, thank you Allie!