The linear and non-linear properties of material have gained in both scientific interest and technological importance. Over the last few years, there has been much interest in developing materials with large nonlinearities in order to exploit their potential for use in ultrafast nonlinear optical devices. The different factors that play a role for controlling the refractive indices such as density, molar refraction, photon energy, coordination number, electronic polarizability, field strength of cations, bridging and nonbridging oxygen, and optical basicity are discussed in accordance with the obtained linear refractive index data. The nonlinear phenomena which include intensity dependent on refractive index, excitation energy, dispersion energy, optical energy, metallization criterion, second and third harmonic generations have been discussed. Finally, the optical application, viz. photonics, electro-optics, photo chromic and magneto-optics of the material have been studied.Keywords:Glass; linear; nonlinear indices; optical application