Optical materials

Germanium is a chemical element; it has symbol Ge and atomic number 32. It is lustrous, hard-brittle, grayish-white and similar in appearance to silicon. It is a metalloid (sometimes considered a nonmetal) in the carbon group that is chemically similar to silicon. Like silicon, germanium naturally reacts and forms complexes with oxygen in nature.

thumb|upright=1.25|Main sapphire-producing countries

Calcite is a carbonate mineral and the most stable polymorph of calcium carbonate (CaCO3). It is a very common mineral, particularly as a component of limestone. Calcite defines hardness 3 on the Mohs scale of mineral hardness, based on scratch hardness comparison. Large calcite crystals are used in optical equipment, and limestone composed mostly of calcite has numerous uses.

state of matter with properties of both conventional liquids and crystals

chemical compound naturally occurring as periclase

chemical compound

transparent thermoplastic, commonly called acrylic

chemical compound

chemical compound

chemical compound

optical polarizer made of two birefrengent calcite crystals

chemical compound

chemical compound

transparent variety of calcite

thumb|Example of phosphorescence thumb|Monochrome monitor thumb|Aperture grille CRT phosphors

chemical compound

chemical compound

chemical compound

chemical compound

chemical compound

chemical compound

production of colour by microscopically structured surfaces, both as a natural phenomenon and in technology

synthetic crystalline compound with garnet structure

glass consisting of pure silica

group of polymers prepared from (possibly substituted) acrylate monomers

chemical compound

metal alloy

In chemistry and materials science, a luminophore is the part of a molecule, coordination complex, or solid-state material that is responsible for its luminescence (light emission following excitation). In molecular photochemistry, the closely related IUPAC-recommended term lumiphore refers to "a part of a molecular entity (or atom or group of atoms) in which electronic excitation associated with a given emission band is approximately localized", by analogy with chromophore for absorption. In practice, the term luminophore is widely used across chemistry, physics, and engineering literature fo

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racemic mixture of tartaric acid

glass type

nonlinear optical effect

blue gemstone

optically active material

chemical compound

chemical compound

glass which displays two different colors by undergoing a color change in certain lighting conditions

chemical compound

type of laser

GeSbTe (germanium-antimony-tellurium or GST) is a phase-change material from the group of chalcogenide glasses used in rewritable optical discs and phase-change memory applications. Its recrystallization time is 20 nanoseconds, allowing bitrates of up to 35 Mbit/s to be written and direct overwrite capability up to 106 cycles. It is suitable for land-groove recording formats. It is often used in rewritable DVDs. New phase-change memories are possible using n-doped GeSbTe semiconductor. The melting point of the alloy is about 600 °C (900 K) and the crystallization temperature is between 10

thumb|250px|A piece of CR-39 manufactured for radiation detection

thumb|A Spectralon panel Spectralon is a fluoropolymer that has the highest diffuse reflectance of any known material or coating over the ultraviolet, visible, and near-infrared regions of the spectrum. It is the whitest substance available and reflects 99% of the light. It exhibits highly Lambertian behavior, and can be machined into a wide variety of shapes for the construction of optical components such as calibration targets, integrating spheres, and optical pump cavities for lasers.

a resonator

Optical properties of the material