Magnesium aluminosilicate glasses as potential laser host material for ultrahigh power laser systems
Abstract
Magnesium aluminosilicate glasses doped with 0.2 mol% Sm2O3 (1 × 1020 Sm3+ cm−3) have been prepared in a very broad compositional range. The effect of the MgO, Al2O3 and SiO2 concentrations as well as the effect of partial substitution of MgO by CaO, SrO, BaO, ZnO or MgF2 have been studied. Increasing the network modifier concentration results in decreasing the glass transformation temperature and increasing the coefficient of thermal expansion due to the formation of non-bridging oxygen sites and decreasing glass network connectivity. Although the network connectivity is changed substantially by the addition of network modifier