Bianca Schreder

Optical glass and glass ceramic historical aspects and recent developments: a Schott view

Since the time of Galilei 400 years ago the progress of optical systems was restricted due to the lack of optical glass types with different dispersion properties and due to poor material quality. With the work of Otto Schott, which started 125 years ago, glass became a tailorable, highly reproducible and homogeneous material, thus enabling systematic design of optical systems. The demand for new glass types is still going on as well as the requirement for ever tighter tolerances and their proofs. New measurement methods provide deeper insight in the material properties. Developments in processing allow new optical elements to be designed, further advancing technology. This also holds for zero-expansion glass ceramics, another key enabling material for optical systems. This publication highlights some milestones in the history of optical glass and glass ceramics, comments on present day glass development as well as new optical elements and measurement methods and provides some new information on the materials’ properties.

Optical Materials and Their Properties

This chapter provides an extended overview on todayʼs optical materials, which are commonly used for optical components and systems. In Sect. 5.1 the underlying physical background on light–matter interaction is presented, where the phenomena of refraction (linear and nonlinear), reflection, absorption, emission and scattering are introduced. Sections 5.2–5.8 focus on the detailed properties of the most common types of optical materials, such as glass, glass ceramics, optoceramics, crystals, and plastics. In addition, special materials displaying “unusual nonlinear” or “quasi-nonreversible” optical behavior such as photorefractive or photorecording solids are described in Sect. 5.10. The reader could use this chapter as either a comprehensive introduction to the field of optical materials or as a reference text for the most relevant material information.

New heavy metal oxide silicate amplifier glass for compact and broadband amplifiers

Properties of a new rare-earth doped heavy metal oxide containing silicate glass are presented. The glass has potential for fabrication of ultra-short wideband fiber and planar waveguide amplifiers. We report specific results for a fiber amplifier geometry, discussing achieved improvements in device compactness (Giles gain g* = 210 dB/m allowing up to 100 times shorter fiber) and amplification bandwidth (50% more bandwidth in C-/L-band) compared to the conventional EDFA. We also access the potential of this material for fabrication of active planar integrated waveguide devices.

New glass developments for fiber optics

Fiber optic components for lighting and imaging applications have been in use for decades. Recent requirements such as a need for RoHS compliance, attractive market pricing, or particular optical properties, such as numerical aperture (NA) or transmission, have required SCHOTT to develop and implement new glasses for these applications. From Puravis™ lead-free fibers for lighting applications, to new glasses for digital X-ray imaging and sensor applications, the challenges for SCHOTT scientists are considerable. Pertinent properties of these glasses and methods of determination for suitability will be discussed.