Lumicera is a
transparent ceramic
Many ceramic materials, both glassy and crystalline, have found use as optically transparent materials in various forms from bulk solid-state components to high surface area forms such as thin films, coatings, and fibers. Such devices have found ...
developed by
Murata Manufacturing Co., Ltd.
Murata Manufacturing first developed transparent
polycrystalline ceramics in February 2001. This
polycrystalline ceramic is a type of
dielectric resonator material commonly used in
microwaves and
millimeter waves. While offering superior electrical properties, high levels of
transmissivity, and
refractive index, it also has good optical characteristics without
birefringence
Birefringence is the optical property of a material having a refractive index that depends on the polarization and propagation direction of light. These optically anisotropic materials are said to be birefringent (or birefractive). The birefring ...
.
Normally, ceramics are opaque because pores are formed at triple points where grains intersect, causing scattering of incident light.
Murata has optimized the entire development process of making dense and homogenous ceramics to improve their performance.
Under recommendations from
Casio, the material itself has been refined for use in digital camera optical lenses by endowing it with improved transmission of short wavelength light and by reducing pores inside ceramics that reduce transparency.
Lumicera has the same light transmitting qualities as optical glass commonly used in today's conventional camera lenses, however it has a refractive index (nd = 2.08 at 587 nm) much greater than that of optical glass (nd = 1.5 – 1.85 ) and offers superior strength. The Lumicera Z variant is described as
barium oxide based material, not containing any environmentally hazardous materials (e.g.
lead).
Lumicera is transparent up to 10 micrometers, making it useful for instruments operating in the mid-
infrared spectrum.
Lumicera is a trademark of Murata Manufacturing Co., Ltd.
Lumicera is used in some
Casio Exilim cameras, where it allowed 20% reduction of the lens profile.
References
Optical materials
Ceramic materials
Ceramic engineering
Transparent materials
{{ceramics-stub