Schott inaugurates U.S. chalcogenide glass production
Duryea, PA--Schott North America announced the availability of chalcogenide glasses for infrared (IR) optical and fiber-optic components used in IR lasers and sensing applications from its Duryea, PA facility. The production kickoff marks the first time Schott will produce chalcogenide glass components in the United States. To showcase the production, a customer open house and simulcast live webinar was held on December 7 at the Schott Duryea facility.
In cooperation with the The Optical Society (OSA), Schott is also hosting a seminar on site led by Kevin P. Thompson, group director, research and development for optics at Synopsys (Mountain View, CA). The seminar is entitled "Optical Design in the Infrared: The world has changed - new materials, methods, and solutions to address new challenges."
Schott says its chalcogenide glass is ideal for defense and commercial security and sensing applications such as night vision and thermal imaging. It provides high transmission quality across a wide range of the IR spectrum, from the near-infrared (NIR) to long-wavelength infrared (LWIR) regions. Like many of Schott’s glass applications, chalcogenide glass has a broad transparency range and consistent optical behavior over a wide temperature range, assuring it can withstand extreme environments without defocusing.
Adding the new chalcogenide glass line and fabrication technologies to the Duryea facility will provide customers with a family of IR glasses to meet customers' specific requirements for their application. "SCHOTT is pleased to be able to offer a high quality, domestically produced source of chalcogenide glass components to serve our customers in the U.S. defense, security and commercial thermal imaging markets," said Heather Rayle, VP and GM for the North American Advanced Optics business.
SOURCE: Schott; www.us.schott.com/english/news/index.html?NID=420&PHPSESSID=hak9m134l76k573lo9qpt5onl7
Gail Overton | Senior Editor (2004-2020)
Gail has more than 30 years of engineering, marketing, product management, and editorial experience in the photonics and optical communications industry. Before joining the staff at Laser Focus World in 2004, she held many product management and product marketing roles in the fiber-optics industry, most notably at Hughes (El Segundo, CA), GTE Labs (Waltham, MA), Corning (Corning, NY), Photon Kinetics (Beaverton, OR), and Newport Corporation (Irvine, CA). During her marketing career, Gail published articles in WDM Solutions and Sensors magazine and traveled internationally to conduct product and sales training. Gail received her BS degree in physics, with an emphasis in optics, from San Diego State University in San Diego, CA in May 1986.