Characterization of thermo-optical and mechanical properties of calcium aluminosilicate glasses

In this work several different compositions of CaO:Al2O3:SiO2 were prepared under vacuum atmosphere to study the glass forming ability of this system as a function of the SiO2 content. Samples containing 25–45 wt% of Al2O3, 31–44 wt% of CaO, 14–39 wt% of SiO2 and 4.1 wt% of MgO were prepared in graphite crucibles, for approximately 2 h at ∼ 1600 °C. The influence of silica content is discussed in terms of the mechanical properties, glass transition temperature, crystallization temperature, transmittance spectrum, refractive index, mass density, specific heat, thermal diffusivity, thermal conductivity and the temperature coefficient of optical path length change. The results reinforce the idea that these glasses are strong materials, having useful working-temperature range, good combination of thermal, mechanical and optical properties that could be exploited in many optical applications, in particular, as glass laser materials.