Examples of new glass technologies

Whilst glass bottles and products have existed for millennia, the current understanding of glass production has advanced rapidly in the last century. Instead of small window panes, modern high quality architectural glass can coat entire buildings in large sheets of material with properties that define, and control, both heat transport to offer temperature stability for buildings and vehicles, as well as colour for decorative usage. Additionally, the glass may be photochromic in windows or sunglass usage. More exotic types include impact and bullet-proof resistance, as described by numerous routes to toughen and modify glass surfaces. In each of the industrial scale examples, as well as more demanding situations such as glass lasers, the key factor is a stringent usage of dopants and impurities (i.e. perfect examples of control by imperfections).