OPTICAL ELEMENT

摘要

The present invention provides an athermalized optical element that does not require auxiliary material to compensate for the rate of change of the refractive index with temperature, which can be widely applied to both transparent materials of inorganic material and organic material, and is formed without decrease of transparency and dimension distortion. The optical element of the present invention is an optical element for controlling light propagation including: transparent material; and inorganic fine particles dispersed in the transparent material, wherein the transparent material and the inorganic fine particles meet at least one of following a) and b): a) a rate of change of a refractive index of the transparent material with temperature and a rate of change of a refractive index of the inorganic fine particles with temperature are opposite in sign; b) a thermal expansion coefficient of the transparent material and a thermal expansion coefficient of the inorganic fine particles are opposite in sign.