Thermal evaporation is commonly used for the production of optical coatings. The well-known thermal evaporation is the most frequently used process for the production of optical coatings. The low packing density of thermally evaporated films implies optical constants and mechanical properties which are inferior to those of the bulk materials. In this paper a range of ion based coating technologies, such as ion-assisted deposition (IAD), ion plating (IP), arc discharge evaporation, and plasma IAD are described. For the investigations of the plasma-IAD process, we used a newly developed advanced plasma source (APS) with special features. The properties of dielectric layers deposited with plasma IAD will be presented in comparison to conventional thermally evaporated films. In particular, the results of scratch resistant layers in combination with antireflection coatings on organic substrates will be shown.