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New Functionality in Glass

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 November 2013

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Glass serves a critical function in diverse technologies ranging from medicine to telecommunications. Fax machines and text scanners use micro-optic lens arrays made from ion-exchanged, gradedindex glass to image original documents. Data for long-distance communication by telephone or computer are transmitted in the form of modulated laser light through highly transparent glass fibers. These signals are boosted for long-haul transmission by stimulated emission in erbium-doped glass optical amplifiers. Lap-top computers use flat-panel-display glass in their liquid-crystal screens (see “Materials for Flat-Panel Displays,” MRS Bulletin, March 1996). Gall-bladder and hysterectomy surgeries have been made minimally invasive in part because of slender glass imaging endoscopes.

Functionality in glass is expanding rapidly. New properties are often attributable to new defect species created by strong optical or electrical fields. For example rare-earth-doped ZBLAN glass (a commercial fluoride glass), when exposed to high peak-intensity femtosecond laser pulses, becomes phosphorescent. (See the cover of this issue.) The phosphorescence is visible to the naked eye up to 12 hours after illumination. Other compositions show similar effects. Phosphorescent glasses are transparent and may be more easily formed into contiguous films and fibers than powder or microcrystalline phosphors.

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New Functionality in Glass
Copyright
Copyright © Materials Research Society 1998

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References

1. The Williamsburg meetings were the 1997 Glass and Optical Materials Division Meeting of the American Ceramic Society; the Bragg Gratings, Photosensitivity and Poling Meeting sponsored by the Optical Society of America (OSA); and the 12th International Conference on Optical Fiber Sensors, sponsored by OSA, Williamsburg, VA, 1997. The Williamsburg Proceedings are published by North-Holland and also appear in the October 1998 issue of Proceedings are published by North-Holland and also appear in the October 1998 issue (vol. 239) of the Journal of Non-Crystalline Solids.Google Scholar
2.Structure and Dynamics of Ionic Glasses: Experiments, Models and Applications (Schloss Rauischholzhausen, Germany, 1997). Proceedings published by North-Holland and also appear in the January 1998 issue of Solid State Ionics.Google Scholar
3.Relaxations in Complex Systems, vols. 235–237 (1998) pp. 1814. 3rd International Discussion Meeting on Relaxations in Complex Systems (Vigo, Spain, 1997). Proceedings will also appear in the Journal of Non-Crystalline Solids in late 1998.Google Scholar
4.Practical Implications of Glass Structure,” Proceedings of the Fourteenth University Conference on Glass Science (Lehigh University, Bethlehem, PA, 1997). Proceedings published by North-Holland.Google Scholar
5. 18th International Congress on Glass, hosted by the American Ceramic Society (San Francisco, 1998). Proceedings are available on CD-ROM from the American Ceramic Society publications department.Google Scholar