Sol-gel glasses: some recent trends

The basic experimental steps in the preparation of sol-gel glass as developed in recent times, and their relevance have been discussed taking high purity silica glass as an example. Current developments in sol-gel derived ultra-low expansion glasses, rare earth doped laser glasses, semiconductor-doped non-linear glasses, gradient index lenses, microoptics and organic molecule-doped (mainly dyes) glasses for sensor and other applications have been discussed in brief.