Plastics in Optical Systems

Photonics is a key enabling technology of the 21st century. Transparent polymers are closely connected to this economic success. Due to its great freedom in design and the precise reproducibility in mass-production, transparent polymers are more and more the first-choice material.

Research at the LKT focuses on the novel production technique of Compression-Induced Solidification (CIS). Here, the hot melt in the whole cavity is solidified simultaneously solely by pressure. This is possible because of the pressure-dependent glass transition range of polymer materials. Thereafter, the compressed and solidified melt is cooled. The homogeneous solidification by pressure and the one-phase-cooling reduces dimensional deviations and inner stresses significantly. Another area of research deals with transparent plastic compounds. The aim is to adapt and enhance material properties with the incorporation of filler materials without adversely affecting the transparency.