Colorless chalco-halide Ga2S3-GeS2-CsCl glasses as new optical material

Colorless sulfide glasses can be obtained by selecting appropriately the composition within the Ga2S3-GeS2-CsCl pseudo-ternary glass system. The addition of electronegative chlorine ions into the sulfide glassy network results in a widening of its optical bandgap without altering its infrared transparency. Glasses transparent from the near UV (380 nm) up to the middle infrared (11.5 μm) are thus achievable. Such extended infrared transmission for a colorless glass is the widest among the known heavy metal oxide and fluoride glasses, e.g. fluoroindate glasses are transparent from 350 nm up to 8-9 μm. We present in this work our recent progress on the preparation of this chloro-sulfide glass of high optical quality. Efforts have been devoted in a first step to reduce the content of extrinsic impurities such as OH, SH and H2O. In a second step, protective coatings have been deposited on polished glass samples to improve their chemical durability and assess their potential for practical applications. Large improvement of both optical quality, in terms of transmission spectrum flattening, and chemical durability were achieved. Finally, the high thermal stability against crystallization of this glass shows a high potential for lens molding and applications in multispectral imaging.