Technical sheet glass offers much better surface quality, purity, and flatness than ordinary standard flat glass. These glass products meet the high requirements of the optical and optoelectronic industries. They typically provide unique properties such as high-temperature resistance, excellent surface quality, or increased flatness. Often, they work in optical applications without the need for additional, expensive polishing processes. Here, please find the spec sheets of our high-grade flat glass materials like BOROFLOAT® and B 270® crown glass from SCHOTT as well as EAGLE XG® 1737F, EAGLE2000, and 7059 from CORNING and finally, our selected float glass.

Optical GlassLens

Optical glasses differ from other glasses in that they have precisely defined properties. For example, the refractive index, Abbe number, and other optical properties are precisely defined for these glasses. Further, optical glass has a very high material purity, usually contains only minimal amounts of bubbles and inclusions, and often features excellent refractive index homogeneity and high light transmission. SCHOTT, OHARA, or CORNING mainly produce the materials in this category. These types of glasses allow the manufacturing of precision optics with increased optical requirements and well-defined properties. Optical windows, mirror substrates, lenses, or lens blanks are based on these materials. Here, you find links with properties and specifications of some of our optical block, drawn, rolled, bar, quartz, and precision-glass materials like SCHOTT N-BK7, optical quartz glass (fused silica), CORNING ULE® low expansion glass, PYREX®, and VYCOR®.

Optical glassmaterial

Our specialty sight glass allows visual observation under particular conditions. Such material types do not need optical quality, as this is not a design requirement for such products. However, they feature unique capabilities such as high-temperature or chemical resistance or protection against X-rays (lead glass). More ...

Have a look at this image of a magnifying lens on the Wikipedia page about Optics. It shows clearly how the lightbeams from the top of the image travel trough different parts of the lens. The lens then bends them (through refraction) in such a way that, to the observer, the lightbeams appear to come from a point that is further to the left and to the top. That is the virtual image. All the lens has done is to bend the lightbeams in a way that makes them appear to come from a "virtual", larger object. In the process it magnifies the object. As the lens bends the lightbeams, we cannot see the real object through the lens, only the magnified virtual image.

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Optical glasstypes

How does a magnifying glass work? I know it creates a virtual image of the observed object but how is it possible that humans can see the virtual image?

Note that the above description is true only for a magnifying (convex) lens. For concave lenses, the beams would be bent in a different way, and the virtual image will appear smaller than the real object.

Specialty thin glasses, microplates, and display glass materials offer extraordinary properties. They can be, for example, alkali-free, ultra-thin, flexible, or lightweight. These materials are suitable for thin glass optics, the production of displays, or COG processes. Here you can find the specification sheets of our thin-glass, microsheet, and display glasses, like the SCHOTT brand materials D263 T, AF 32® eco, AS 87 eco, MEMpax®, AF45, and AF37, as well as the CORNING products EAGLE XG® 1737F, EAGLE2000, and 0211. Moreover, you will find information about our selected float glass.