SOLUTION-PROCESSED TELLURIDE GLASS FOR FAR-INFRARED DEVICES

Abstract

Tellurium-based chalcogenide glasses are materials that are transparent over a range of long infrared wavelengths, making them applicable for many uses such as thermal imaging for the security and defense industries. Because they are glasses, they also offer an advantage over modern infrared optical materials, which are crystalline and more difficult to fabricate. In addition, chalcogenide glasses in general have the potential to be 3D printed from glass solutions, which can enable intricate optical designs that are not possible using today’s methods. Chalcogenide glasses made from solution have already been developed for glasses such as arsenic sulfides and arsenic selenides, however, this has not been shown yet for tellurides. The focus of the study was to bridge this gap by investigating the viability of producing a germanium arsenic telluride chalcogenide glass from solution. The chemical composition, structure, and transmission of the solution-processed telluride glass were measured. The composition of glass studied in this project was found to maintain very similar stoichiometry and structure to the starting glass, which suggests that the optical properties may also be similar.