Spectroscopy and thermal properties of Ga2S3 based glasses

In the present work we describe the synthesis and spectroscopy and thermal properties of the vitreous system 20La(2)S(3)-(80 - x)Ga2S3-xCsCl, x varyin g from 10 to 30, producing homogeneous glasses by fusion method in vitreous carbon crucible in a horizontal silica chamber with a controlled atmospher e of sulphur, present during whole process. The sample properties, after sy nthesis, were measured by X-ray diffratometry, absorption spectroscopy, Ram an scattering, density, hardness and refractive index. Our results show tha t the density, refractive index and hardness increase with CsCl content, wh ile the phonon frequencies are less than 470 cm(-1). We have drawn optical fibers from samples in this glass system because of an increase of thermal stability with increasing CsCl content. The refractive index measurements a llowed us to estimate the third-order non-linear optical susceptibilities a nd show that it depends on the CsCl content. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.