Guide to quartz glass application in optical field

Quartz glass is a special industrial technology glass composed of silica single component, with a series of special physical and chemical properties, and is known as the "king of glass" by experts in the field of new materials.

Optical high purity silicon quartz glass properties

Quartz glass has a range of excellent optical properties.  Compared with ordinary glass, high purity quartz glass has good transmittance in the extremely wide spectrum from far ultraviolet (160nm) to far infrared (5μm), which is not possessed by general optical glass.  Quartz glass is widely used in many optical devices because of its excellent spectral transmittance and optical uniformity.

Pure silicon dioxide quartz glass applied in optical field  

♦ Fiber optic communication

Optical fiber is an optical transmission tool, optical transmission is carried out through both ends of the fiber, widely used in the optical fiber communication industry, optical fiber communication has high anti-interference, fast speed, large transmission capacity, has become an important pillar of modern communication.  Quartz fiber is developed early and has mature technology. It has the advantages of high precision, high strength, high reliability, low energy consumption and simple assembly. Therefore, in recent years, quartz fiber is increasingly important for artificial satellites, deep space exploration, inertial navigation and other fields.

♦ Optical lens  

With the improvement of science and technology and industry level in our country, the application of quartz glass has been mixed into People's Daily life.  In the field of new energy, quartz glass has been used in the "Shenguang-III" device developed by our country as an important material of terminal optical components such as vacuum window, lens, shield piece, polarizer, continuous phase plate and beam sampling grating.  In the field of micro-optical materials, quartz glass materials are widely used in the microlens industry because of their excellent transmission ratio in the continuous wavelength range from ultraviolet to infrared.  Digital cameras, computer screens, CCD cameras, medical instruments and so on are commonly used with micro lenses.

♦ Mirror  

Reflector is one of the important parts of space optical system such as space telescope, exploration satellite, weather satellite and reconnaissance satellite.  With the development of space imaging technology and the deepening of human's understanding of the universe, people's requirements on the accuracy of space optical system have also been improved.  The mirror of the mirror should not only have high resolution, but also good image quality.  Space is a gravity-free environment with large temperature difference. In addition, the load requirements when the optical system is launched into space should be considered. At the same time, the production of large size optical system in space requires the materials used to have small thermal deformation coefficient, large specific stiffness and small surface roughness.

Considering the above performance conditions, low expansion quartz glass is the preferred material.  Low expansion quartz glass has a very low coefficient of thermal expansion, and good cold and hot processing performance, can be made into a closed honeycomb structure.  The preparation technology of low expansion quartz glass material is relatively mature, and it is widely used in optical engineering, such as the primary mirror of Hubble Space telescope.  

Silicon dioxide powder quartz glass research direction

As a special optical material, quartz glass plays an extremely important role in the field of aerospace, semiconductor and precision devices. Its performance directly restricts the resolution, accuracy, stability and reliability of related equipment.  However, even if its anti-irradiation performance is excellent, it will still be irradiated by high-energy charged particles in space under long-term service conditions, which will lead to a significant decline in its optical and other properties, thus affecting the service life of components.  Therefore, it is necessary to study the effect of space ionizing radiation environment on quartz glass materials.