Optical and physics differential characteristics of optical plastics

Abstract

Optical organic materials, or optical plastics, are raising interest in recent decades thanks to advances in manufacturing processes. It is already common for these materials to be in optical systems, for example in the field of medicine or computer science. However, the characteristics of these compounds have not been as studied as in the case of glasses, and the little available information is widely dispersed. The present revision article tries to compile those most interesting optical and physics differential characteristics of the optical plastics, from the point of view of an optical engineer which must face the design of an optical system.