Dispersion and thermal properties of lithium aluminum silicate glasses doped with Cr3+ ions

A series of new lithium aluminum silicate (LAS) glass systems doped with chromium ion is prepared. The reflectance and transmittance of the glass slabs are recorded. By means of an iteration procedure, the glass refractive index n and the extinction coefficient k and their dispersions are obtained. Across a wide spectral range of 0.2-1.6 mu m, the dispersion curves are used to determine the atomic and quantum constants of the prepared glasses. These findings provide the average oscillator wavelength, the average oscillator strength, oscillator energy, dispersion energy, lattice energy, and material dispersion of the glass materials to be calculated. For optical waveguide applications, the wavelength for zero material dispersion is obtained. Dilatometric measurements are performed and the thermal expansion coefficient is calculated to throw some light on the thermo-optical properties of the present glasses correlating them with their structure and the presence of nonbridging oxygen ions. (c) 2006 Optical Society of America.