Why Is High Refractive Index Important?

Published: August 24, 2015

, Last updated: September 8, 2025

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Optical polymers are very specialized materials.

Not only are they lightweight, easy to process, strong, inexpensive and transparent; some of them (like the OKP polyesters) have high refractive index.

High refractive index??

Refractive index is a measure of how light propagates through a material. The higher the refractive index the slower the light travels, which causes a correspondingly increased change in the direction of the light within the material. What this means for lenses is that a higher refractive index material can bend the light more and allow the profile of the lens to be lower.

So the lens gets thinner (see the graphic below). Decreasing lens thickness corresponds to decreased weight (always a good thing), and continuation of the engineering goal that each generation of electronics must be smaller than the one before.

It also enables some of the fashions we have these days.

How else can you carry a phone in the pocket of your “skinny jeans”?

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About the Author

Randall Elgin Randall Elgin, Business Development, Specialty Products, Technical Sales Randall started her career at Fiber Optic Center (FOC) in February 2010 as a technical specialist in encapsulation materials for optical applications. Since then she has worked with new materials, optical and otherwise, that enable high tech applications in the photonics industry. She regularly attends the photonics exhibitions in the US and Europe. Randall joined FOC from Nusil, where she spent 5 years working on the encapsulation issues for Solid State Lighting. Prior to that she spent 3 years at Lightspan in Wareham, MA, learning about and supporting emerging optical applications. Before Lightspan, she was an electrical engineer for 17 years at Sippican Ocean Systems in Marion, MA. Randall graduated from Boston University in 1984 with a Masters in Electrical Engineering. She and her husband reside outside New Bedford where they built a super energy efficient home, enjoy rural living and take in the New Bedford and Boston classical music scenes.

About Fiber Optic Center, Inc.

Fiber Optic Center, Inc., (FOC), is an international leader in distributing fiber optic components, equipment, materials, and supplies known for helping customers make the best cable assemblies in the world for over three decades. Material property consultation is provided by technical experts for lapping film, epoxy, adhesives, optical coatings, and optical plastics during application specific material selection. Technical process expertise is offered in several key technology areas. Specialized expertise includes cable assembly line mastery, fiber broadband field installation best practices, and technical advancements in telecom, datacom, data centers, and hyperscale. Optical cable specification development includes design and quality testing. FOC's impact reaches the network physical capabilities through fiber manufacturing process expertise from preform fabrication and shaping, fiber drawing, and coating requirements for double clad fibers used for high power fiber laser applications to solution doping, vapor phase doping, rare earth chelates and halide recipe consultation. Fiber Optic Center is the preferred choice for the world’s fiber professionals as the industry connection to the most innovative optical products, technologies and technical experts who integrate their manufacturing knowledge and vast experience into customers' worldwide operations. @FiberOpticCntr

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