The decisive role of oxide content in the formation and crystallization ofgallium-lanthanum-sulfide glasses

A series of gallium-lanthanum-sulfide (GLS) glasses of different oxide conc entration has been made and their spectroscopic properties, thermal propert ies, and the crystallization behavior of the glasses have been studied. It was revealed that the formability of GLS glasses relies on the existence of a certain amount of oxide content. The thermal stability of GLS glasses ch anges as a function of oxide concentration. The results have also shown tha t increasing oxide content caused a shift of the visible absorption edge to shorter wavelengths and an increase of absorption intensity in the infrare d region at the multiphonon edge. Two closely related crystalline phases ha ve been identified in the crystallized GLS glasses. For the first time it h as been revealed that thermally stable GLS glasses can be made near the eut ectic point of these two crystal phases by introducing an optimized amount of oxide.