Introduction to New Optical Materials
New optical materials refer to optical materials with high technological content, high manufacturing difficulty, and excellent optical performance that have been developed in the past 10 years with the advancement of modern optics, optoelectronics, and information technology. Environmentally friendly series optical glass, low melting point, phosphate optical glass, etc.
In the past decade, great achievements have been made in optoelectronic information technology. In order to meet this rapidly developing requirement, it is necessary to seek new breakthroughs in broader cutting-edge fields such as transmission, exchange, data storage, and display technology. Due to the close integration of modern optical industry and electronic industry, information technology, and communication technology, the application of optoelectronic technology, photon technology in optical manufacturing, and electronic industry technology have broken through traditional concepts such as imaging components to functional components, passive components to active components in the optical components and optical processing industry. At present, non spherical, diffractive optical elements, WDM wavelength division multiplexers manufactured by ultra high precision thin film technology, and ultra high precision optical elements manufactured by new generation lithography equipment have led to the mainstream of new generation optical elements. In a sense, current photon technology is still in the development stage.
At present, there are dozens of optical materials: colorless optical glass and colored optical glass, infrared optical materials, optical crystals, optical quartz glass, artificial optical quartz crystal, microcrystalline glass, optical plastics, optical fibers, aviation organic glass, milky white; Color diffusion glass and related liquid materials, among which optical glass is the most widely used imaging element. The quality of plastic lenses can meet the quality requirements of glass lenses in many places, especially in the eyewear industry. However, due to limitations such as low refractive index, high scattering, and non-uniformity, their range of use is not as good as optical glass.
Lanthanide optical glass
The rare earth optical glass in this optical material is also known as rare earth optical glass, which has the high refractive index and low dispersion characteristics of rare earth oxide optical glass in its composition. It is a high-end optoelectronic information material widely used in digital cameras, digital cameras, scanners, LCD projectors, digital copiers, CD ROMs, and DVD ROMs reading lenses. It can effectively expand the field of view of the lens, improve the imaging quality of the instrument, and make the lens smaller and lighter. In the near future, it will also be used in optical systems for shooting mobile phones. Its development prospects are quite promising. With the rapid development of the optoelectronic information industry, it has become the main product of optical materials.
Until the end of the 20th century, the production of rare earth optical glass in China remained in a state of technological backwardness, outdated equipment, low output, limited variety, low quality, and high cost. This glass has low viscosity; Easy crystallization "; Due to the advantages of high quality, difficult molding, large fluctuations in optical constants, poor dispersion, difficulty in eliminating bubbles and stripes, and severe corrosion of ceramic crucibles, traditional production equipment and processes cannot solve the problems of low output, poor quality, and high cost. We need to introduce optical glass and optical components required for high-end optical products from abroad.
Environmentally friendly series optical glass
With the increasing awareness of environmental protection among people, developed countries have successively promulgated and implemented environmental protection laws. If harmful lead oxide and arsenic oxide are not used in glass, environmentally friendly optical glass needs to be used in optical instruments and optoelectronic products. In order to meet this requirement, major optical glass manufacturers in the world have developed various series of environmentally friendly optical glasses in recent years. Since 1993, Japan's Ohara company has provided 31 types of lead-free, arsenic free, and environmentally friendly optical glass to the market. In 1996, 93 types of environmentally friendly optical glass were produced. In 1997, 111 varieties of optical glass were completely free of lead and arsenic in the product catalog, leading the world. Since 1994, Japanese company TAG Heuer has launched 31 types of environmentally friendly glass in its product catalog of 101 varieties. In 2002, it achieved lead-free and arsenic free fully environmentally friendly optical glass. Titanium oxide belongs to mixed color oxides, and adding too much titanium oxide will greatly increase the difficulty of the production process. The problem is that the transmittance decreases in the short wave range, and the anti loss, transparency, and defoaming properties of the glass deteriorate. Especially the platinum melting crucible is prone to contaminating the glass, causing it to color and the chromaticity cannot meet the requirements for product export.
Phosphate optical glass
Phosphate and fluorophosphate optical glasses are both low dispersion optical glasses with special relative partial dispersion. The relative dispersion in the short wave direction is greater than that of ordinary glass, and can be used to eliminate the special dispersion of secondary spectra. Phosphate optical glass has a low softening temperature and can be used for precision molding. Its excellent performance is also reflected in high fluorescence intensity, fluorescence peak on the short wave side, negative refractive index, and temperature coefficient. Due to the physical and chemical properties and manufacturing process difficulties of phosphate and fluorophosphate optical glasses, only Hoya, Schott from Germany, and other manufacturers in Japan can mass produce them.
The present invention relates to a novel optical glass, comprising optical glass, electronic glass, semiconductor glass ceramic, laser glass, I-line high uniformity glass, high transmittance low optical coefficient glass, DWDM thin film filter, glass ceramic lining, ultra-low expansion glass ceramic, glass optical disc (head floating test), glass ceramic substrate for PLC, and negative thermal expansion glass ceramic. Some large foreign companies are developing and researching, and some products have already begun to be applied. Optical materials have developed into high-precision and multifunctional optoelectronic information materials. Among them, high-precision thin glass used for liquid crystal display substrates, high-quality optical glass production process, low melting point optical glass, non spherical profile process, environmentally friendly optical glass, high-density optical disc glass, phosphate optical glass, infrared glass for thermal imaging, low light night vision optical glass, special fiber glass, gradient index glass, magneto-optical and acousto-optic glass, etc . is a new type of optical material and advanced production technology developed in recent years. There is still a big gap between China and foreign countries in the development of new optoelectronic information materials. Among them, high-precision thin plate glass, low melting point optical glass, non spherical pressing process, phosphate optical glass, and high-density optical disc glass for liquid crystal display substrates are still blank spaces in China.