Optical bonding using silica nanoparticle sol-gel chemistry.

A simple method is described to bond optical components using silica nanoparticle sol-gel chemistry. The silica nanoparticles polymerize into highly branched networks that link the surfaces together. The nanoparticle mediated bonding has several advantages to currently used optical joining technologies. The bonding is a room-temperature process and does not require any clean room facilities. The bonded interface has a high mechanical strength and low scattering. The bonding is resistant to organic solvents on silylation with hydrophobic surface groups. This method achieves 100% successful bonding rates between soda-lime glass slides. The bond-setting time can be tailored to allow time for precision optical alignment.