Optical elements and methods of making optical elements

摘要

The present invention provides an optical element including a silver halide-containing glass material having a concentration of less than 0.001 wt % cerium; and a refractive index pattern formed in the silver halide-containing glass material, the refractive index pattern including regions of high refractive index and regions of low refractive index, the difference between the refractive indices of the high refractive index regions and the low refractive index regions being at least 4x10-5 at a wavelength of 633 nm. The present invention also provides methods for making optical elements from silver halide-containing glass materials.