Manufacturing process for chalcogenide glasses
AssigneeThe United States of America as represented by the Secretary of the Navy
InventorsVinh Q Nguyen, Jasbinder S. Sanghera, Shyam S. Bayya, Geofi Chin, Ishwar D. Aggarwal
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Abstract
The present invention is generally directed to a method of making chalcogenide glasses including holding the melt in a vertical furnace to promote homogenization and mixing; slow cooling the melt at less than 10° C. per minute; and sequentially quenching the melt from the top down in a controlled manner. Additionally, the present invention provides for the materials produced by such method. The present invention is also directed to a process for removing oxygen and hydrogen impurities from chalcogenide glass components using dynamic distillation.
Claims14
A method of removing oxygen impurities from chalcogenide glass components, comprising:
- providing a two-zone furnace having a first temperature zone and a second temperature zone;
- providing a first chamber disposed in the first temperature zone and a second chamber in the second temperature zone, wherein the first chamber is fluidly connected to the second chamber such that vapors will transfer from the first chamber to the second chamber;
- providing chalcogenide glass components in the first chamber in the presence of aluminum, zirconium, magnesium, or any combination thereof;
- and
- heating the first chamber to a temperature greater than the second chamber, such that purified chalcogenide glass components distill into the second chamber leaving any oxygen impurities in the first chamber.
A method of removing hydrogen impurities from chalcogenide glass components, comprising:
- providing a first chamber disposed in a furnace, wherein the first chamber is fluidly connected to a vacuum;
- providing chalcogenide glass components in the first chamber in the presence of tellurium tetrachloride;
- and
- heating the first chamber to a temperature to vaporize an HCl species from the chalcogenide glass components and withdrawing the HCl species from the first chamber via the vacuum.
A high optical quality chalcogenide glass without refractive index perturbations prepared by a process comprising the steps of:
- heating the glass components to a melt temperature to form a melt;
- holding the melt in a vertical furnace to promote homogenization and mixing;
- slow cooling the melt by reducing the temperature less than 10° C. per minute;
- and
- sequentially quenching the melt from the top down in a controlled manner.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.