Optical Properties of Materials: A Sampling of NIST Contributions

Published

January 1, 2000

Author(s)

Thomas A. Germer, R Gupta, Leonard M. Hanssen, Eric L. Shirley

Abstract

Optics has found an extremely wide range of applications in industry and science, and the properties of the materials that make up optical instruments are key to their performance. Examples include glass for optical instrumentation such as telescopes and cameras, semiconductors for electronics, ultraviolet materials for photolithography, and infrared materials for remote sensing and defense applications. As optical instruments have increased in sophistication and performance over the past 100 years, NIST has played an essential role in optics development by providing a knowledge base of the optical properties of a large number and wide variety of materials. For generation of the materials data, NIST has developed unique instrumentation and measurement methods to obtain the highest accuracy data. These capabilities have also served industry, government and academia as calibration service facilities and the production of physical standards made available to users. NIST also develops measurement methods that enable interpretation of optical properties, such as light scatter, to enhance the application of optical property measurements for material inspection. NIST continues to develop and improve its capabilities, including the development of a theoretical basis for the derivation of optical properties to meet the future critical needs of industry and science.

Citation

Materials Research Society Symposium Proceedings

Pub Type

Journals

Keywords

ab initio calculations, infrared, optical properties, optics, refractive index, scattering

Citation

Germer, T. , Gupta, R. , Hanssen, L. and Shirley, E. (2000), Optical Properties of Materials: A Sampling of NIST Contributions, Materials Research Society Symposium Proceedings (Accessed May 10, 2024)