Abstract

Sol-gel optical components have attracted interest due to their low capital and manufacture costs. One advantage of the sol-gel route to optical glasses is that the manufacture of silica and titania is possible at low temperatures, allowing the incorporation of nonlinear dyes. Silica and titania have better heat transport properties than polymers and do not photodegrade. Colloidal silica films are routinely used for antireflection coatings on high power optics because of their high damage thresholds.¹ These films therefore show much promise for nonlinear optical applications where at present high optical intensities are required.

© 1994 IEEE