Fused silica optical properties

Optical Applications. Vitreous silica is ideal for many optical applications because of its excellent ultraviolet transmission, resistance to radiation darkening, optical polishing properties, and physical and chemical stability. It is used for prisms, lenses, cells, windows, and other optical components where ultraviolet transmission is critical. Cuvettes used in scatter and spectrophotometer cells are manufactured from fused silica and fused quartz because of the transmissive properties and high purity (222). 

The CARS signal is carried to the HGS by means of a fiber optic. The fiber is sized to accommodate the optical properties of fhe CARS beam. The authors have used a fiber with an 80-um core and a 125-um cladding, made of fused silica and designed to have an /number of 4.1... 

Ti02 films with different crystal structure also show marked differences in their optical properties. Figure 1 shows the spectral transmission of slowly tempered Ti02 films deposited from an ethyltitanate solution on both sides of (a) fused silica and... 

Fused silica is by far the primary optical material for lens manufacturing. Its mechanical and thermal properties are well known, and its grinding and polishing infrastructure are well established. It is relatively inexpensive and has good index homogeneity over large areas. Lens-grade fused silica, however, is an expensive material. The temperature-dependent properties of fused silica are summarized in Table 13.7. 

Fused silica (UV grade) has excellent transmittance properties and is both durable and thermally stable. It finds uses as the material of choice for prisms, lenses, windows and cuvettes in the region 160-2000 nm. However, infrared grade fused silica may be used from 250 to 3500 nm. Optical crown glasses are more restricted in wavelength range from 300 to 2500 run. 

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