Optical components with a graded-index structure, and method of manufacturing such components

US6236493A · kind A · utility

Assignee

• Institut fuer Neue Materialien gemeinnuetzige GmbH · DE

Inventors

• Helmut Schmidt · Riegelsberg, DE
• Herbert Krug · Ludwigshafen, DE
• Peter W. Oliveira · Riegelsberg, DE
• Stefan Sepeur · Wadgassen, DE

Key dates

• Filing date: Oct 1, 1998
• Grant date: May 22, 2001
• Expiry date: Oct 1, 2018

Classification

• Technology area (CPC Y): Emerging Cross-Sectional Technologies
• CPC primary: Y10S977/834
• WIPO field: Optics
• WIPO sector: Instruments

Abstract

Optical components have a material-distribution gradient due to nanometer-size particles embedded in a solid matrix. The components are manufactured by forming a dispersion of nanometer-size particles in a liquid, curable matrix material, causing the particles to migrate in the matrix material on the basis of a potential difference to form a distribution gradient, and subsequently curing the matrix material, retaining the distribution gradient. The method is suitable for use in the manufacture of optical lenses with a refractive index gradient.