Sol-gel processing : an alternative way to glasses for optoelectronics

Abstract

The sol-gel route to glass offers considerable advantages. Among these the control of composition, low processing temperatures, organical modifications of inorganic polymers leading to a new a class of glass-like materials, the processing of sols to coatings or powders, and the possibilities to structurize glasses are interesting for optoelectronic glasses. Future perspectives of sol-gel processing of optoelectronic glasses as well as some experimental results concerning the state of the art are given.