Development of silicate and germanate glasses based on lead, bismuth and gallium oxides for midIR microstructured fibers and microoptical elements

• Three component lead-bismuth-gallium glasses have high susceptibility to crystallization.
• Thermal stability of glass increased with SiO2 and GeO2 addition to its composition.
• MidIR transmittance and nonlinearity decreased with growth of SiO2 concentration.
• PbO–Bi2O3–Ga2O3 glasses with SiO2 and CdO additions are good material for PCF.
• Stack-and-draw method of PCF fabrication was used with thermal stable glasses.

Three component PbO–Bi2O3–Ga2O3 glasses are characterized by high midIR transmittance, with a large susceptibility to crystallization. In this paper we investigate the increase in the thermal stability of these glasses by the addition of oxides such as GeO2, SiO2, Tl2O, CdO, Nb2O5. The resulting multicomponent glasses are well suited for the fabrication of microstructured fibers and micro-optical elements. The increased thermal stability of the modified multi-component glasses resulted in the IR absorption cut-off shifting to shorter wavelengths.