Effects of Microcrystallization on the Properties of Ge23Se67Sb10 Glass for Infrared Transmission

The effects of heat treatment temperature and time on the structure, hardness and infrared transmittance of Ge23Se67Sb10 glass have been studied by DSC, XRD, SEM, FTIR and Vickers. Results show that the microcrystallization of the Ge23Se67Sb10 glass is mainly controlled by the heat-treatment temperature. Until the heat-treatment temperature becomes higher than 310 degrees C crystallization peaks and crystallization phases cannot be detected by XRD and SEM. The mechanical and optical properties of microcrystallized Ge23Se67Sb10 glass depend on the heat-treatment temperature and time. When the heat-treatment temperature is below 310 degrees C, the hardness of the glass increases slowly with increasing the heat-treatment temperature and time, and the infrared transmittance almost does not vary. The hardness and the infrared transmittance of the glass decrease sharply with increasing the heat-treatment temperature and time when the heat-treatment temperature researches to 310 degrees C. After heat treatment at 310 degrees C for 70 h, the microhardness of the microcrystallized Ge23Se67Sb10 glass is increased by 20% compared with that of the original glass, and the infrared transmittance is as high as 50% in the wavelength range from 2 mu m to 12 mu m.