Calcium Fluoride has both high average transmission and low chromatic aberration compared to most IR materials. Unlike Germanium and Silicon, it is also transparent in the UV and Visible wavelength ranges, making it suitable for applications such as fluorescence imaging, or spectroscopy where operation over many wavelength bands is essential. Other application examples include use in femtosecond IR systems due to low group velocity dispersion in the IR) and use in excimer laser systems due to low UV absorption and high damage threshold).

The refractive index of Calcium Fluoride is remarkably stable vs wavelength. Visible chromatic aberration is extremely low with an Abbe Number of 95.31 compared to N-BK7 at 64.17, which means that this material is great for imaging applications. In the infrared region CaF2 is an excellent material to use in ultrafast experiments as it has the lowest group velocity dispersion (GVD) of any IR Material at 1.77 fs2/mm. This is half the GVD of Magnesium fluoride and orders of magnitude lower than Germanium or Silicon.