Competition between photorelaxation and photoexcitation in chalcogenide glasses and the effect of aging

Fang Yin Lin, Pierre Lucas

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

7 Scopus citations

Abstract

Measurements of transient photodarkening and permanent Bragg reflector formation were performed on fragile As18S65Se17 glass and indicate that photodarkening and photorefraction can only be induced in previously aged glasses while they are prevented in freshly annealed glasses. These phenomena are associated with the photorelaxation process that is revealed to be prominent in fresh glasses and is shown to effectively anneal out the defects produced during photoexcitation thereby resulting in no net permanent changes in the structure. On the other end, aged glasses do not undergo any photorelaxation and exhibit large transient and permanent changes associated with an increase in structural enthalpy as confirmed by Differential Scanning Calorimetry. These results demonstrate that photorelaxation can be a significant problem in fragile glass compositions as it cancels out the effect of photoexcitation and impedes the photodarkening and photorefractive process.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)888-892
Number of pages5
JournalJournal of Non-Crystalline Solids
Volume357
Issue number3
DOIs
StatePublished - Feb 1 2011

Keywords

  • Chalcogenide glass
  • Photodarkening
  • Photorelaxation

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Electronic, Optical and Magnetic Materials
  • Ceramics and Composites
  • Condensed Matter Physics
  • Materials Chemistry

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