Infrared Transparent Germanate Glass‐Ceramics

Abstract

A new germanate glass‐ceramic material in the BaO‐Ga 2 O 3 ‐GeO 2 system is developed for infrared (IR) dome and window applications. This glass‐ceramic material has a grain size of ∼0.2–0.5 μm and is transparent in the 3–5 μm IR region. Glass ceramization results in 40% improvement in hardness, 65% increase in elastic modulus, 116% increase in strength, and 134% increase in fracture toughness over the base glass.