Optical elements and methods of making optical elements

Abstract

The present invention provides an optical element including a silver halide-containing glass material having a concentration of less than 0.001 wt % cerium; and a refractive index pattern formed in the silver halide-containing glass material, the refractive index pattern including regions of high refractive index and regions of low refractive index, the difference between the refractive indices of the high refractive index regions and the low refractive index regions being at least 4×10−5 at a wavelength of 633 nm. The present invention also provides methods for making optical elements from silver halide-containing glass materials.

Description

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION[0001]1. Field of the Invention[0002]The present invention relates generally to optical elements and methods for their manufacture, and more specifically to glass-based optical elements having a refractive index pattern formed therein, and methods for their manufacture.[0003]2. Technical Background[0004]Diffractive optical elements find use in a wide variety of fields. For example, diffractive optical elements are useful for filtering, beam shaping and light collection in display, security, defense, metrology, imaging and communications applications.[0005]One especially useful diffractive optical element is a Bragg grating. A Bragg grating is formed by a periodic modulation of refractive index in a transparent material. Bragg gratings reflect wavelengths of light that satisfy the Bragg phase matching condition, and transmit all other wavelengths. Bragg gratings are especially useful in telecommunications applications; for example, they have been used as se...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

The present invention relates to an optical element made from a silver halide-containing glass material with a refractive index pattern that includes regions of high and low refractive index. The difference between the refractive indices of the high refractive index regions and the low refractive index regions is at least 4×10−5 at a wavelength of 633 nm. The invention also provides a method for making the optical element by exposing the glass material to patterned ultraviolet radiation or pulsed patterned radiation, and then subjecting it to a heat treatment. The resulting optical element has high photoinduced refractive index changes that are stable at elevated temperatures. The invention offers advantages over prior art methods, such as simplified manufacture of a variety of shapes and stable refractive index changes.

Problems solved by technology

Many photosensitive materials have been used; however, few have provided the desired combination of performance and cost.

For example, Bragg gratings have been recorded in germanium-doped silica glass optical fibers; while such gratings are relatively robust, the fiber geometry and high melting point of the material make these gratings inappropriate for many optical systems.

These filters had narrow-band filtering performance, but suffered from low thermal stability, opacity in the UV region, and sensitivity to visible radiation after recording.

Photosensitive polymers have also been used as substrates for Bragg gratings; however, devices formed from polymeric materials tend to have high optical losses and high temperature sensitivity.

These glasses had very high absorbances at wavelengths less than 300 nm, making them unsuitable for use with commonly used 248 nm excimer laser exposure systems.

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