New oxysulphide glasses in Sb2S3-MmOn and Sb2S3-Sb2O3-MmOn systems

New oxysulphide glasses involving antimony sulphide (Sb2S3), antimony oxide (Sb2O3) and MmOn (M = Cu+1, Pb+2, Sn+2, Zn+2, Ba+2, In+3, Bi+3 and V+5) have been investigated and characterized. They exhibit physical properties, different from those of classical oxide glasses and chalcogenide glasses. Glass-forming regions have been found in the Sb2S3-MmOn binary systems based on antimony sulphide as the main glass former and Sb2S3-Sb2O3-MmOn ternary systems derived from the Sb2S3-Sb2O3 binary glass. Most glasses are easy to prepare and quite stable in air. Depending on the composition and the nature of the M cation, glass transition temperature, Tg, is between 190 and 290 °C, crystallization temperature, Tc, is between 243 and 442 °C and the stability factor Tc−Tg is between 23 and 170 °C. Optical properties of these glasses have been measured. They generally appear black with no transparency in the visible range. For some thin glass samples, the infrared absorption edge extends up to about 12 μm.