Optical glass with tightest refractive index and dispersion tolerances for high-end optical designs

In high end optical designs the quality of the optical system not only depends on the chosen optical glasses but also on the available refractive index and Abbe number tolerances. The primary optical design is based on datasheet values of the refractive index and Abbe number. In general the optical position of the delivered glass will deviate from the catalog values by given tolerances due to production tolerances. Therefore in many cases the final optical design needs to be modified based on real glass data. Tighter refractive index and Abbe number tolerances can greatly reduce this additional amount of work. The refractive index and Abbe number of an optical glass is a function of the chemical composition and the annealing process. Tight refractive index tolerances require not only a close control and high reliability of the melting and fine annealing process but also best possible material data. These data rely on high accuracy measurement and accurate control during mass production. Modern melting and annealing procedure do not only enable tight index tolerances but also a high homogeneity of the optical properties. Recently SCHOTT was able to introduce the tightest available refractive index and Abbe number tolerance available in the market: step 0.5 meaning a refractive index tolerance of +/- 0.0001 and an Abbe number tolerance of +/- 0.1%. This presentation describes how the refractive index depends on the glass composition and annealing process and describes the requirements to get to this tightest refractive index and Abbe number tolerance.