Dichroic Glass is glass that has a multi-layered coating attached to it using a highly technical vacuum deposition process. Quartz crystal and metal oxides are vaporized with an electron beam gun in an airless vacuum chamber and the vapor then floats upward, attaches and then condenses on the surface of the glass in the form of a crystal structure. Colors have as many as 30 layers of these materials; yet the thickness of the total coating is approximately 35 millionths of an inch. The coating that is created is very similar to a gemstone and different colors are obtained by careful control of the thickness.

Dichroic Glass was originally created for the Aerospace industry for satellite mirrors, but it now has many technical uses including: Lighting, Fiber Optics, Infrared Lasers, Motion Picture Equipment, Sun Glasses, and more.

Dichroic Glass is now made available to the artist community through Coatings By Sandberg, Inc.  CBS Dichroic Glass is specifically designed to be hotworked in many ways but can also be used in its raw form. The main characteristic of Dichroic Glass is that it has a transmitted color and a completely different reflective color and these two colors shift depending on angle of view. The "Transmitted Color" is the color you see in a clear piece of glass when you can actually see through the glass. The "Reflected Color" is the color you see in a clear or opaque piece of glass when the light bounces off of the surface of the glass. Most colors are listed with its Transmission Colors then its Reflected Color. For example "Blue/Gold" will be Blue in transmission and Gold in reflection. If coated on a black/opaque sheet with Blue/Gold, you would only see its reflection of Gold (yet, it is still called Blue/Gold). With the play of light together with its vibrant color, Dichroic Glass is a prime tool used to add interest to any piece of work or project. With over 45 Colors of Dichroic Coatings available to be placed on "any" substrate (i.e. glass), artists have unlimited freedom of expression.

Source: Coatings by Sandberg, Inc.