Optical Properties of LaO3/2-TiO2-MOx (M=Dy, Yb) Glasses Prepared by Aerodynamic Levitator.

초록

Containerless levitation processing solidifies a levitated melt without any container, and thus it suppresses inhomogeneous nucleation from the container walls. As a result, the deeply undercooled melt easily transforms to a glassy state compared with conventional glass making process. The development of new glasses with higher refractive indices is of great interest. Thus, TiO2-based high reflective index glasses have been investigated in literature. In our preliminary study, colorless and transparent LaO3/2-TiO2 glass was successfully prepared by aerodynamic levitation. In order to develop a new optical materials with high refractive indices and small wavelength dispersion, LaO3/2-TiO2-MOx (M=Dy, Yb) were prepared by aerodynamic levitation. Samples with various compositions were levitated using O2 gas flow in an aerodynamic levitator and melted using a CO2 laser. The levitated melts were rapidly cooled to room temperature and solidified by turning off the CO2 laser. Colorless and transparent LaO3/2-TiO2-MOx glasses were obtained. The microstructure and optical properties of LaO3/2-TiO2-MOx glasses were investigated and the results were discussed in detail.