Abstract
Researchers at the University of Central Florida and Lockheed Martin Corporation have developed a technology that enables a single glass-ceramic composition to provide a range of refractive indices and dispersion values. The invention expands the single-point solution in the Abbe diagram enabled by the transformation of a glass-ceramic composition from glass (amorphous phase) to various levels of crystallinity (glass-ceramic). The broad index variations of the IR glass-ceramic materials are tailored through a unique manufacturing process.
The tailored ceramization process—that is, the ability to create different filling fractions of crystals and/or different crystal species inside the base glass matrix—which can be achieved in a furnace, electrically or optically via a laser, is what allows a "continuous" linear, circular or elliptical area on the Abbe diagram. It is also the mechanism for replacing many lens elements with fewer elements for chromatic aberration correction. The innovation widens the number of materials that can be used and paired for IR system design, especially in infrared applications, where the number of commercially available compositions is very limited due to the high manufacturing costs of making and optimizing IR compositions.
Benefit
Single composition enables a range of refractive indices and dispersion valuesAlleviates the fabrication cost of multiple compositions, as the ceramization process is less costly and time-consuming than the base glass fabrication processExpands the list of available material pairs for IR system designs, making systems more compact, with fewer optical elementsMarket Application
EngineeringDevices, Imaging & Instrumentation, IoTSecurity & DefenseMaterialsOptics & Photonics
Brochure
