Optical and photo-acoustic properties of semiconducting Ge-Sb-S glasses

Abstract

The glass-forming region for the system Ge-Sb-S has been determined for bulk and thin-film samples. For each sample the composition was examined by means of a microprobe analyser and the amorphous structure was confirmed by X-ray analysis. The optical properties of amorphous samples of Ge-Sb-S were investigated in the range near to the absorption edge and the variation of the energy gap with composition was determined. Infrared transmission spectra of some typical samples showed that they were transparent in the range above 900 cm-1 indicating that these glassy materials could be used for making optical fibres in communication systems of the future, when CO2 lasers are expected to be used as light sources.