Sol-Gel Materials for Optics and Electrooptics

Abstract

This chapter looks into the development and performance of sol-gel optical and electrooptical materials. The study of sol-gel optical materials is fast developing for wide-ranging applications. Optical hybrid sol-gel coatings may have potential applications as smart windows, radiation protection coatings, coatings for optical lenses, photochromic and electrochromic materials, nonlinear materials, refrac-tive and photorefractive, sensors, waveguides, optical filters and absorbers, reflecting and AR coatings, optical biofilms, magneto-optical materials, UV protection coatings, and space materials. Extensive research literature is available on the characterization of their physicochemical properties and the study of the molecular interactions of the dopants with the embedding surfaces of the hybrid matrices. While briefly looking at the various optical applications, this chapter focuses on the performance of the optical sol-gel materials, and more specifically, their contributions describing recent progresses and interdisciplinary approaches to materials with novel properties.