Clemson University TigerPrints All Dissertations Dissertations 12-2009 NUCLEATION AND GROWTH BEHAVIOR OF TELLURITE-BASED GLASSES SUITABLE FOR MID-INFRARED APPLICATIONS Jonathan Massera Clemson University,
[email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://tigerprints.clemson.edu/all_dissertations Part of the Materials Science and Engineering Commons Recommended Citation Massera, Jonathan, "NUCLEATION AND GROWTH BEHAVIOR OF TELLURITE-BASED GLASSES SUITABLE FOR MID- INFRARED APPLICATIONS" (2009). All Dissertations. 463. https://tigerprints.clemson.edu/all_dissertations/463 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the Dissertations at TigerPrints. It has been accepted for inclusion in All Dissertations by an authorized administrator of TigerPrints. For more information, please contact
[email protected]. NUCLEATION AND GROWTH BEHAVIOR OF TELLURITE-BASED GLASSES SUITABLE FOR MID-INFRARED APPLICATIONS A Thesis Presented to the Graduate School of Clemson University In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Doctor of Philosophy Materials Science and Engineering by Jonathan Massera December 2009 Accepted by: Dr. Kathleen Richardson, Committee Chair Dr. Stephen Foulger Dr. John Ballato Dr. Yaw Obeng Dr. Mark Davis ABSTRACT Optical fibers transmitting in the 2-5 µm mid-infrared (MIR) spectral region are highly desirable for a variety of military and civilian applications including super- continuum generation, infrared countermeasures (IRCM), and MIR laser sources. These new applications in the mid-infrared require novel optical materials that transmit in this window and can be fabricated into fiber. As tellurite glasses are known to have good transparency in the (NIR) region, tellurite-based glasses are the material of choice for this study due to their high linear and nonlinear refractive index, their low glass transition temperature and the ability to form them into optical fiber.