Optical and thermo-mechanical properties of new Ge-Ga-Se-AgI glasses

International audienceIn this paper, the introduction of silver by incorporation of AgI in the family of chalcogenide glasses transparent from the visible range to 16 µm has been reported. A large glass forming region belonging to the GeSe2-Ga2Se3-AgI and able to accept more than 50 mol. % of AgI was discovered. Pure glasses, slightly transparent in the visible range up to 16 µm have been synthesized. A systematic study of thermo-mechanical and optical properties was performed. The possibility of shaping and drawing these glasses give them a great interest in ion exchange experiments to achieve gradient of the refractive index