Photochromic lenses are lenses that darken on exposure to UV radiation. Once the UV is removed (for example by walking indoors), the lenses will gradually return to their clear state. Photochromic lenses may be made of either glass or plastic. The glass version of this type of lenses was first developed by Corning in the 1960's. More recently, plastic versions of these lenses have been commerciallized. The first of these was the Photolite lens sold in the early 1980's by American Optical Corporation. The first commercially successful plastic photochromic lens was introduced by Transitions Optical in 1991.

The glass version of these lenses achieve their photochromic properties through the embedding of microcrystalline silver halides (usually silver chloride), or molecules in a glass substrate. Plastic photochromic lenses rely on organic photochromic molecules (for example oxazines and naphthopyrans) to achieve the reversible darkening effect. The reason these lenses darken in sunlight but not indoors under artificial light, is that room light does not contain the UV (short wavelength light) found in sunlight. Automobile windows also block UV so these lenses will not work very well in a car.

With the photochromic material dispersed in the glass substrate, the degree of darkening depends on the thickness of glass, which poses problems with variable-thickness lenses in prescription glasses. With plastic lenses, the material is typically embedded into the surface layer of the plastic in an uniform thickness of up to 150 µm.

Because photochromic compounds fade back to their clear state by a thermal process, the higher the temperature, the less dark photochromic lenses will be. This thermal effect is called "temperature dependency" and prevents these devices from achieving true sunglass darkness in very hot weather. Conversely, photochromic lenses will get very dark in cold weather conditions.

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