Surface treatment of barium gallogermanate laser glass

The surface of barium gallogermanate glass is modified through HCl solution etching to remove the surface defects and contaminations. The etching process and mechanism for barium gallogermanate glass in hydrochloric acid are investigated, and its optimum conditions are determined. However, the HCl etching induces the insoluble etch product containing minute crystal particles on glass surface. By heating BGG glass at the optical fiber drawing temperature, the deposited surface layer turned to be amorphous again and results in the increase of the transmittance of glass. The results indicated that the HCl etching combined with subsequent high-temperature heat treatment is an effective approach to improve the surface quality of barium gallogermanate glass, which would reduce the optical loss of the final optical fiber.