What is the difference between optical glass and ordinary glass?
In optics, optical glass and lenses are commonly used components or consumables used for lenses, prisms, mirrors, optical windows, etc. So what is the difference between optical lenses and glass and lenses in daily life?
In optics, optical glass and lenses are commonly used components or consumables used for lenses, prisms, mirrors, optical windows, etc. So what is the difference between optical lenses and glass and lenses in daily life?
The industry of optical glass is mainly divided into irradiation-resistant optical glass, irradiation-resistant optical glass, ultraviolet and infrared optical glass, colorless optical glass, tinted optical glass, and optical quartz glass after standardization. There are also four key preparation technology components development, physical and chemical testing, melting process, and melting equipment. Among them, the optical glass melting technology contains single crucible melting, continuous melting, and so on.
What is the difference between optical glass and ordinary glass?
1. The process of processing, the materials used, and the craftsmanship of production are very different from ordinary glass.
2. Optical lenses are very different from ordinary glass in terms of their appearance following different applications and can be recognized by the naked eye.
3. The performance of optical glass is emphasized in the control of all wavelengths of light, while ordinary glass only has control of visible light wavelengths, often more concerned about durability and practicality.
Ordinary glass is generally used for mirrors or decorative items, such as windows, glass doors, and handicrafts, eyeglass lenses are not considered ordinary glass, eyeglasses or contact lenses, contact lenses will be classified as optics/medical devices, glasses without prescription are classified as decorative items.
Optical lenses have a wide range of applications throughout the information, optics, light sources, photovoltaic, and semiconductor industries, the most common, while there are many emerging industries and national defense fields of experimental development that also require more special optical lenses. Optical lenses are important basic materials, that play a key role, such as high-end optical lenses with special performance optical glass, semiconductor field photomask substrate with synthetic quartz glass, laser fusion devices with large size laser neodymium glass, infrared thermal camera lenses with infrared sulfur glass and so on.
Quartz Glass Optical Lenses
Quartz optical glass is generally used for various types of optical components in the wavelength range of 190nm~2300nm.
Synthetic quartz glass is a very high-end optical material with excellent high-temperature resistance (its softening point is similar to the melting point of platinum, and its coefficient of thermal expansion is extremely small, only 1/6 of that of ceramics and 1/20 of that of ordinary glass.), excellent spectral properties (high transmittance from the ultraviolet to infrared wavelength bands, especially in the ultraviolet and deep-ultraviolet spectral ranges of transmittance performance is not available in general optical glass.) High dielectric field strength (low dielectric loss and very low electrical conductivity, making it an excellent insulating material). High purity (the total metal ion content of synthetic quartz glass can be controlled within 1×10-6.) etc.
The preparation technologies for high-quality synthetic quartz glass mainly include the electrofusion method, gas fusion method, chemical vapor deposition (CVD), plasma chemical vapor deposition (PCVD), etc. Currently, the most commonly used method is chemical vapor deposition.
Low Refractive Special Dispersion Optical Glass
Low dispersion fluoro-phosphor glass characteristics of fluoride glass and phosphate glass advantages of a combination of ultra-low refractive index, ultra-low dispersion, and high special relative partial dispersion value, and has superior achromatic performance, especially for long focal length compound achromatic lens, can be used as a substitute for CaF2 fluoride crystal.
However, there is a difficult problem in the preparation of low dispersion fluorophosphorus glass, that is, the fluorophosphorus glass contains a large number of volatile fluoride components, which are easy to evaporate, leading to the glass partial inhomogeneity, in addition to the serious erosion of the platinum crucible, and the platinum particles are easy to melt into the glass.
Special low-dispersion glass can improve imaging geometric accuracy while expanding the imaging field of view and reducing system complexity, reducing the number of lenses, simplifying and optimizing the structure of optical systems, and reducing their size and weight. Therefore, it is regarded as a key optical material for long focal lengths, large fields of view, and high-definition optical systems.
Infrared Sulfur Glass
In recent years, sulfur-based glass has been considered a new generation of infrared optical lens materials. Common infrared optical materials mainly include ZnSe crystals, Si single crystals, Ge single crystals, sulfur-based glass, fluoride, etc.
Sulfur glass is a kind of infrared optical material with excellent performance, It is an oxygen-free glass formed by S, Se, and Te in the VIA group of the periodic table, and introduces a certain amount of other metal elements (Ga, Ge, As, Sb, etc.), and it can be divided into three major systems: sulfur-based (S) glass, selenium-based (Se) glass, and tellurium-based (Te) glass.
In addition, the sulfur glass also has excellent infrared transmittance, high optical nonlinearity, low phonon energy, photo-induced effects, semiconductor properties, fast ionic conductivity properties, etc., which can be applied to automotive night vision devices, infrared imagers, life detectors, infrared shoulder-held missiles, night-vision gun sights, and other fields.
Sulfur-based glasses have an advantage in the design of non-thermalized infrared optical systems. Optical lenses and their metal materials in the temperature change occur when the optical/mechanical parameter changes together to determine the infrared image quality changes. The infrared optical system application environment is more demanding and more targeted to the environmental temperature changes to improve the optical design and reduce the infrared optical system in the temperature change environment due to changes in refractive index caused by focus shift, out of focus, and other image quality degradation problems.
Typical applications of sulfur glass in non-thermalized infrared optical systems include telephoto-type long-wave infrared telescope objective lenses and molded aspherical lenses based on sulfur glass.
RZ Optics Co., Ltd. is a manufacturer of optical components, and main products including spherical lenses, domes, windows, mirrors, etc. Our products are widely used in various fields, such as the Laser field, imaging technology, aerospace, etc. We also could provide OEM service.
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