Optical and thermal properties of chalcogenide Ge-As-Se-Te glasses for IR fibers

Chalcogenide Ge-As-Se-Te glasses for infrared fiber have been investigated. The extent of the glass forming region, the thermal properties and the infrared transmissions are reported. The glasses were purified by the distillation method containing Mg getter to remove oxide absorption peaks. The fibers were fabricated by the crucible method using high purified glasses and their transmission loss spectra were measured in a wavelength region 3–13 μm. The lowest transmission loss at 10.6 μm obtained is 1.5 dB/m. In the glass system, the appropriate Te content for low-loss fiber at 10.6 μm was found in the vicinity of 50 atomic %.