Effect of Pb-ions on the kinetics of devitrification and viscosities of AlF3-based glasses for waveguide fabrication

Aluminium fluoride glasses doped with different concentrations of Pb2+ have been analyzed for their devitrification characteristics. The kinetics of devitrification, using isothermal and non-isothermal calorimetric techniques, were studied for PbF2-containing glass compositions: 99 - x 99 ( 39 AlF 3 – 6 MgF 2 – 22 CaF 2 – 6 SrF 2 – 6 BaF 2 – 10 LiF – 8 NaF – 2 NaPO 3 ) – x PbF 2 – 1 NdF 3 , in which the concentrations of PbF2 were varied between 0.34 mol% and 15 mol%. Based on the kinetics of devitrification, we comment on the thermal stability of PbF2-containing fluoroaluminate glasses.