ABSTRACT
Glass is normally thought of as an inert material, that is stable to the ambient conditions and will remain so for eons. This property of inertness plays a dominant role in glass's numerous applications ranging from a simple window to the modern complex optical waveguide that drives today's optical network. However, there is a special class of much less known glass that can be made to interact strongly with its environment, and most importantly, with light either in a transient or permanent way. The general classification is termed "photosensitive," which actually pertains to a number of different manifestations of the phenomenon although they contain a common physical basis. The simplest case is solarization, where the optical effect is observed after exposure. The chapter also presents an overview on the key concepts discussed in this book.
