Preparation of Nd2O3-doped calcium aluminosilicate glasses and thermo-optical and mechanical characterization

The calcium aluminosilicate glass (CAS) is an important class of optical materials due to the many applications envisaged, including its use as active media for glass lasers. In order to study how Nd2O3 doping affects the mechanical and the thermo-optical properties of CAS glass, two series of CAS glass, doped with Nd2O3 up to 5 wt%, were prepared in a vacuum atmosphere. The rare earth changes the physical properties, and this influence of doping ion content is discussed for both the series of samples in terms of mechanical, thermal, and thermo-optical properties. The study analyzed hardness and elastic moduli, glass transition temperature, crystallization temperature, thermal diffusivity, specific heat, density, thermal conductivity, refractive index, and thermo-optical properties, like temperature coefficient of the optical path length (dS/dT). The results presented provide information about the sample’s structure, and show that for Nd2O3 concentration up to 5 wt% there were no significant changes in the glass host material.