Glass, optical applications materials

Within the limitations on the physical properties which generally restrict plastics to low precision optics, plastics materials have found wide applications in optical products that range from lights to binders for electroluminescent phosphors to fiber optics and lasers. They represent an easily worked material with a wide range of desirable optical properties in simple to complex shapes. In this review the discussion has been limited to the differences between plastics and optical glass materials and to some of the unique design possibilities that are especially important for plastics. Using the optical arts and the... 

Silicon is the most important constituent of igneous and many sedimentary rocks, occurring in combination with oxygen in feldspars, micas, quartz, sands and shales. The element is used in electronic devices, while silicon in combination with oxygen as silica and silicates finds application in concrete, bricks, pottery, enamels, glasses, optical fibers for telecommunications, and refractory (high-temperature resistant) materials. 

The cadmium chalcogenide semiconductors (qv) have found numerous applications ranging from rectifiers to photoconductive detectors in smoke alarms. Many Cd compounds, eg, sulfide, tungstate, selenide, telluride, and oxide, are used as phosphors in luminescent screens and scintillation counters. Glass colored with cadmium sulfoselenides is used as a color filter in spectroscopy and has recendy attracted attention as a third-order, nonlinear optical switching material (see NONLINEAR OPTICAL MATERIALS). Dialkylcadmium compounds are polymerization catalysts for production of poly (vinyl chloride) (PVC), poly(vinyl acetate) (PVA), and poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA). Mixed with TiCl4, they catalyze the polymerization of ethylene and propylene. 

In principle these compounds offer access to materials with AliCh-SiCL and Al203 2Si02 stoichiometries. The latter stoichiometry is equivalent to the Al[OSi(OBu-t)3 (OBu-t)] precursor. The major drawbacks with these materials are their air and moisture sensitivity, and the cost of the starting materials. Although the idealized stoichiometries of the above ceramics products are not those of crystalline aluminosilicates, amorphous aluminosilicate glasses are often important in optical applications or in scratch-resistant coatings. Furthermore, they may offer potential for CVD-type applications. There still remains considerable need for simple precursors to crystalline aluminosilicates, especially for structural applications. Dense, phase pure crystalline ceramic materials are desired for optimal mechanical properties, e.g. ceramic fibers for composite manufacture. 

This survey of organic photochromic and thermochromic compounds focuses on the main families that are involved in existing commercial applications, such as variable optical transmission materials (ophthalmic glasses and lenses), or in potential uses such as optical storage (optical disks or memories). 

Ethylene-norbornene copolymers, which have thermoplastic properties when heated above their glass transition temperatures of ca. 200-250°C, have been commercialized by Ticona GmbH under the trade name TOPAS (Tliermoplas-tic Olefin Polymer of Amorphous Structure). Their properties - exceptional transparency, low double refraction, high stiffnes and hardness, low permeability for moisture and excellent biocompatibility - make these ethylene-norbornene copolymers particularly valuable as engineering polymers, for optical applications and as materials for food and medical packaging. 

J. Pick, Crystalline Nanoparticles in Glasses for Optical Applications, in Handbook of Surfaces and Interfaces of Materials , ed. H. S. Nalwa, Academic Press, San Diego, 2001, p. 311. 

Recently in the field of physics of semiconductors and materials science a great attention has been paid to formation and optical properties of semiconductor nanocrystals (quantum dots, QDs) dispersed in inorganic matrixes. An interest to glassy materials with QDs is associated with their unique physical properties and possibility to create elements of optoelectronic devices. Phase separation processes followed by crystallization are the basic in production of such materials. They result in formation of semiconductor nanocrystals stabilized within a glass matrix. The materials are advanced for various applications because of optical and thermal stability and possibility to control optical features through the technology of glass preparation and post-synthesis thermal treatment. 

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