Effect of antimony on the optical and physical properties of Sb-V₂O₅-TeO₂ glasses

Abstract

Ternary glass systems of the form xSb-(60-x) V₂O₅-40TeO₂ (Sx glasses) with 0 ≤ x ≤ 15 (in mol. %) have been prepared by using the normal melt quenching technique. The optical absorption spectra of these glasses have been recorded within wavelength range of 190 — 1100 nm. The absorption spectrum fitting method was employed to obtain the energy band gap. In this method, only the measurement of absorbance spectrum of the glass is needed. The position of the absorption edge and therefore the optical band gap values were found to be depend on glass composition. Results show that the optical band gap is in the range 1.57 — 2.14 eV. For each sample, the width of the band tail was determined. The densities of present glasses were measured and the molar volumes were calculated. Also, some thermal properties such as glass transition temperature (T _g ) and crystallization temperature (T_Cr) were obtained by using differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) technique, and from which the glass thermal stability S and glass forming tendency K _gl were calculated. Results show that these glasses (specially for x ≥ 10 mol. %) have good stability and therefore good resistance against thermal shocks for technological applications in fiber devices. Also, T _g values indicate the rigidity and packing of the samples increase with increasing the Sb concentration as a network modifier.