Optical Materials

Optical materials consist of glasses, plastics, ceramics and coatings with reflectivity, opacity, color or other properties tailored for mirror, lens, laser or other optics applications. Optical materials include components for use in optical fiber applications such as filters. Optical materials may also be differentiated by their use with different parts of the electromagnetic spectrum. For example, lenses used in ultraviolet (UV) applications are typically made of silica or synthetic quartz. By contrast, lenses designed for visible or near infrared (IR) applications use glass as the optical material.

Optical materials are designed for a variety of uses in optical devices such as spectrometers, lasers, x-ray devices, microscopes, telescopes, and other optical equipment. Optical materials like lenses are designed with specific properties, including curvature and whether or not their surfaces are coated with a special compound. The curvature of an optical lens determines whether it will converge or diverge the light passing through it. A refractive lens is designed to bend the light coming in to it and change its direction. A special type of optical lens such as a Fresnel lens is designed with a series of optical zones. A Fresnel lens consists of a series of concentric sections or concentric rings of prisms with a short focal length. Fresnel lens are now used primarily in spotlights and vehicle headlights because of their ability to focus a narrow beam of light.

Optical materials also include special coatings to treat lenses for specific applications. A glass coating may be used to protect the optical lens from scratches or may provide anti-reflective qualities. An anti-reflective coating is made by coating the lens with a thin film that has an index of refraction between air and glass. A reflective coating may also be available. The light reflected from the inner surface of the coated lens and the outer surface cancel each other out through destructive interference, eliminating glare.

• Optical Materials (.pdf)
  This article describes different types of optical materials....
  (read more)
• Z-Scan for the Characterization of Transparent Optical Materials
  Reliable methods for determining the nonlinear optical properties of materials (i.e. nonlinear absorption and nonlinear refraction) have been developed for wide ranging applications such as optical...
  (read more)
• Dispersion Equations for Optical Materials (.pdf)
  We use a Sellmeir equation to describe the dispersion of common materials, except crystal quartz....
  (read more)

Pages: 1 - 3 of 643

Part Numbers for Optical Materials