STRESS OPTIC COEFFICIENT OF HEAVY-METAL FLUORIDE GLASSES

Stress optic coefficients of several heavy metal fluoride glasses were computed by measuring the induced optical birefringence in the visibl e region upon the application of a direct tensile stress. The values w ere found to vary between 0.3 to 0.6 TPa-1 and were relatively insensi tive to changes in the wavelength, ambient temperature and processing variations such as glass thermal history, atmosphere and minor composi tional additives.