ZEMAX Users' Knowledge Base - Articles - Glass and Refractive Index

How to Create a New Glass Catalog

no@spam.com (Mark Nicholson) — Tue, 06 May 2008 11:30:00 PDT

This article describes how to create a glass catalog to contain your own glass data.

How ZEMAX Calculates Refractive Index At Arbitrary Temperatures and Pressures

no@spam.com (Sanjay Gangadhara) — Fri, 02 May 2008 11:00:00 PDT

This article explains how ZEMAX calculates the refractive index of a material for a given wavelength, temperature, and pressure.

Fitting Index Data in ZEMAX

no@spam.com (Sanjay Gangadhara) — Fri, 02 May 2008 11:00:00 PDT

This article explains:

What to do if the material you wish to design with is not built in to ZEMAX
How to use the Glass Fitting Tool in ZEMAX
How to define Transmission Data

How To Submit Vendor Data To Be Distributed With ZEMAX

no@spam.com (Mark Nicholson) — Tue, 27 Nov 2007 00:00:00 PST

This article explains how to submit test plate, lens and glass catalog data for distribution with ZEMAX.

How To Return the Index of Refraction at a Specific Wavelength

no@spam.com (Dan Hill) — Wed, 16 May 2007 00:00:00 PDT

This article describes the different ways to return index data in ZEMAX.

How To Determine Which Glass Catalog Is Being Used

no@spam.com (Andrew Locke) — Thu, 10 May 2007 00:00:00 PDT

This article explains how to determine which glass catalog is being used as the source of the glass data for a specific surface/object. This is especially important when multiple glass catalogs are loaded containing one or more glasses with the same name.

Take Care With 'Exact Equivalent' Glasses

no@spam.com (Eddie Judd) — Tue, 13 Feb 2007 00:00:00 PST

A few years ago the manufacturers of optical glasses started the process of reformulating their glasses to remove arsenic and lead. At first glance, most of these glasses appear to be the exact equivalents of the original glasses. However, examining the indices in the near UV and the NIR shows that the indices can differ in the 3rd decimal place.

Further more, many other properties of the glasses differ significantly: the new formula glasses absorb earlier at each end of the spectrum, and there can be massive differences in the thermal properties between the old and new formulations.

This article discusses these topics, and shows some traps it is easy to fall into with 'Exact Equivalent' glasses.

This article is also available in Japanese.

How to Choose the Best Glasses for your Optical Design

no@spam.com (Nam-Hyong Kim) — Thu, 05 Oct 2006 00:00:00 PDT

This article explains:

The limitations of traditional glass choice methods like Conrady d-D and the use of model glasses
How to use the Glass Substitution method for direct glass optimization
How to further restrict glass choice to include factors like glass availability, cost, climate resistance etc.

This article is also available in Japanese.

What is the "Reference Temperature"?

no@spam.com (Mark Nicholson) — Fri, 28 Oct 2005 00:00:00 PDT

When a glass is defined in a glass catalog, a "reference temperature" is also entered. The nature of this temperature is sometimes misunderstood. This article explains the correct usage of the reference temperature.

How To Enter Glass Data at Specific Wavelengths

no@spam.com (Dan Hill) — Thu, 06 Oct 2005 00:00:00 PDT

This article explains:

What the table glass is
What is the format required for the table glass
Benefit and simplicity of the table glass