Murata Manufacturing Co., Ltd. has developed a new material (Type-Z) based on transparent ceramics (LUMICERATM) which is extremely achromatic and has a high transmittance of short wavelengths.
Murata Manufacturing have been developing transparent ceramics (LUMICERATM) with a high refractive index and with no birefringence (*1), as a result, the world's first ceramic lens was realized in 2004. While this material (Type-E) has excellent optical characteristics, it has a slight yellow tint as seen in highly refractive index glass, thereby limiting the applicable thickness.
Murata Manufacturing Co., Ltd. has been working on solving this problem and has developed a new material (Type-Z) which still maintains the excellent characteristics of Type-E.
The refractive index of Type-Z is 2.095 at the d line spectrum (587nm), higher than 2.082 for Type-E (an index for visible light is between 380nm and 780nm).
Type-Z has an excellent transmittance of light over the entire visual spectrum. It also allows the transmittance of short wavelength light at slightly below the lower end of the visual spectrum, such as i line (365nm), which commercial high refraction index glass would not transmit easily. As with Type-E, Type-Z is environmentally friendly and does not contain any environmentally hazardous substances including Pb.
The excellent physical characteristics of this material make the downsizing of optical elements possible and it is expected to be used in a wider range of applications.
d
= 29.4