Development of Metal Containing Polymers with Improved Refractive Index for Optical Lenses

Abstract

Polymers, as the base material for optical applications offer profound advantages over traditionally used inorganic glass materials in terms of light weight, impact resistance and better control of focal length. One of the most important characteristics of plastics meant for optical applications is their higher refractive indices in comparison to the conventionally used materials. newlineSince refractive index and Abbe number are important criteria to decide the suitability of a material for optical applications, plastics obviously get prominence over the conventionally used materials! newlineRefractive index is the ratio of speed of light in vacuum to the speed of light in the medium through which light is passing. The higher the refractive index of the material, more the light is refracted through the lens, thus, increasing the focussing power of the materials used for lenses. Therefore, if we use a high refractive index material, less quantity of material would be needed for achieving the desired performance, which means that the lenses would be of much lighter in weight. newlineRefractive index is determined by the intrinsic molar refraction of the chemical bonds constituting the structure of the molecule and the density of the atoms in the material. Contributions to the refractive indices are higher for carbon atoms than for hydrogen atoms. newline