Exceeding the optical properties of glass

It had taken millennia for successive innovations in materials and manufacturing processes to produce glass transparent enough for use in glazing and optical instruments. But in the second half of the ^twentieth century, two radically new processes made it possible to surpass the optical properties of this material. The introduction of optical fibers revolutionized the telecommunications sector, bringing about the transformations we know today in telephony and television, and enabling the development of the Internet. The deposition of thin films on glass has made it possible to modify its optical properties on demand in the visible and infrared ranges, enabling the development of thermally insulating glazing for buildings, and numerous other applications that have transformed the glass industry itself. The innovations that led to these major industrial transformations took place in very different ways, which will be compared in this seminar. The interrelation between science and technology in each of these two cases will also be discussed.

Biography

Hervé Arribart is a graduate of the Ecole Polytechnique and holds a PhD in physics. He began his career as a researcher at the Ecole Polytechnique and the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique. He then moved into industry, first with Elf-Aquitaine (now part of Total), then with Saint-Gobain. In particular, he created and directed a joint CNRS/Saint-Gobain research laboratory, before becoming Scientific Director of the Saint-Gobain group. He also taught at the Ecole Polytechnique and the ESPCI. He is a member of the Académie des Technologies.