Study of the influence of crystalline phases on optical characteristics of a glass-ceramic in the visible range via simulations by the four-flux method

Abstract Opal glasses fabricated by Arc (Arques, France) are glass-ceramics that consist of a glassy matrix mainly constituted of silicon dioxide with well crystallized fluoride compounds as inclusions. These later (ca. 8 vol%) play the role of light scattering centers leading to the well-known milky feature of the commercialized glassware, dinnerware products. Their overall chromatic characteristics strongly depend on few parameters (e.g. the refractive indexes of the glass and the ceramic(s), the concentration of inclusions, their mean size, the surface roughness of the article, etc) that have to be determined and controlled during the manufacturing process to end at the product with the desired optical properties. Using a transfer matrix formalism, the 4-flux method can indeed be used to anticipate the transmittance and reflectance of an object for different set of parameters. The impact of each aforementioned parameter on the color rendering will be here separately discussed, and simulations will be confronted to experimental data to assert their validity and their interest to the genesis of new products with targeted optical properties.