Far-infrared Optical Glasses and Fibers Based on Ge-Te-Se Glass System

International audienceGexTe65Se(35-x) (x = 20, 22, 23, 24, in mole fraction, x%) Te-based chalcogenide glasses were prepared by a conventional melt-quenching method in a silica tube under vacuum. The performance of these glasses was analyzed by X-ray diffraction, differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), visible/near-infrared (IR) absorption spectroscopy and infrared transmission spectroscopy. These glasses appeared to have excellent thermal stability and transmission properties. There was no crystallization peak on the DSC curve for the two glass compositions, namely, Ge23Te65Se12 and Ge24Te65Se11, indicating a notably enhanced resistance to crystallization and a maximum value of Tg at 188 for the glass composition Ge24Te65Se11. The optical transmission window was from 1.8 μm in the bandgap region to 18 μm in the phonon region. A distillation process that could effectively eliminate the absorption bands in the IR region was used for these glasses. The fabrication (rod-in-tube method) and fiber drawing were both conducted with glass compositions of Ge23Te65Se12 and Ge24Te65Se11 as cladding and core, respectively. The Ge-Te-Se infrared optical fiber with core-cladding structure exhibited good fiber drawing properties