Thermal and optical properties of new fluorotellurite glasses for photonics application

TeO 2 -ZnF 2 -PbO-Nb 2 O5 based fluorotellurite glasses were synthesized and studied for the first time for laser applications. The property characterizations including XRD and thermal analysis as well as optical properties measurement were performed. It is demonstrated that this fluorotellurite system has good glass formation ability; and increasing the ZnF 2 concentration to 30 mol% can significantly increase the thermal stability of the glass. Adding ZnF 2 also reduced remarkably the hydroxyl (OH) concentration of the glass resulting in lower optical absorption in the infrared region, which is crucial for infrared laser applications. In addition, the glass absorption cut-off edge near 400 nm blue-shifted with increasing ZnF 2 addition.