ABSTRACT
The production of light polarizing materials in the form of plastic sheet is a well-known art. The production of glass polarizers is less well known. The novel viewpoint taken by Corning was that the elongated silver halide particles suspended in a glass matrix could be thermochemically reduced to the metallic state. A droplet of silver halide, such as found in photochromic glasses and Polarcor products, has a surface tension of about 150 erg/cm2 with a radius of about 10 nm. Wavelength dependence of the absorption of elongated silver metal particles in a hydrogen-reduced silver-halide-containing borosilicate glass as a function of degree of hydrogen reduction. The major application of such IR polarizing glasses is for polarizing-dependent optical isolators for the telecommunication industry. The original Araujo/Cramer6 polarizing glass was a stretched Ag nanoparticle in glass. The glass is melted and poured in a mold to form a redraw bar.
