Optical Glass: an Interplay of Challenges and Success

For several hundred years, there has been an impressive interplay between optical design and optical glass development. Step by step, imaging by lenses in microscopes or other optical instruments has almost reached perfection. Simultaneously, optical technologies have broadened their application field by entering, e.g., the area of telecommunication and being even the driver of novel technologies like augmented reality. Remarkably, even with the latter dramatic change in optics, there has been a red thread concerning the desired material properties so far. However, with today’s nanotechnologies, also completely new approaches may contribute to the field of optical materials in future. Who knows?