New chalcogenide glasses in the GeSe2–Ga2Se3–In2Se3 and GeSe2–Ga2Se3–PbSe domains

Article history:Received 25 September 2012Received in revised form 13 January 2013Available online xxxxKeywords:Chalcogenides;Glasses;Optical properties;Thermal properties;Mechanical properties Two new chalcogenide glassy domains were explored by substituting Ga for In or Pb in compositions from theGeSe 2 –Ga 2 Se 3 tie line in the Ge–Ga–Se ternary diagram. The thermal, optical and mechanical properties ofthese glasses were determined and the effect of the substitutions on these properties was assessed. It is shownthat addition of lead tends to destabilize the glasses while the addition of indium tends to stabilize them. Bothelementsinducea systematicincrease intheonsetof transmissionvaluesand inthe densities when substitutedtogallium.Theglassessynthesizedrepresentgoodpotentialcandidatesfortheproductionofglass-ceramicswithphotovoltaic or nonlinear properties.Crown Copyright © 2013 Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. 1. IntroductionChalcogenide glasses show extended transparency in the infraredrange in the second and third atmospheric transmission windows,located in the 3–5 μmand8–12 μm regions, respectively [1].Duetotheir viscoplastic properties, they can be shaped by molding anddrawn into fibers at a temperature above their glass transition temper-ature [2–4]. For these reasons, these materials are currently used for awide range of applicationsin the infrared range. These include thermalcamerasoptics[2,5],nonlinearoptics[6,7]or fibersforchemicalandbi-ological sensing [3,8]. Notably, glasses from the system Ge–Ga–Se suchasthe80GeSe