High‐refraction index glasses with ultra‐high Young's modulus and high hardness fabricated by containerless processing

• Published in: Journal of the American Ceramic Society Vol. 107; no. 2; pp. 871 - 879
• Main Authors: Ma, Kaicheng, Yu, Jianding, Li, Qin, He, Huan, Ni, Jinqi, Fang, Jinghong, Xiong, Yifei, Yuan, Qiang, Zhang, Qian, Li, Tongtong
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Columbus Wiley Subscription Services, Inc 01.02.2024
• Subjects: Aluminum oxide; Diamond pyramid hardness; Energy of dissociation; Entropy; Field strength; Free energy; Glass; hardness; Heat of formation; Heavy metal oxides; Heavy metals; high‐entropy glass; Lenses; Mechanical properties; Modulus of elasticity; refraction index; Refractivity; Young's modulus
• ISSN: 0002-7820; 1551-2916
• DOI: 10.1111/jace.19504

High‐refractive index glasses with ultra‐high Young's modulus and superior hardness have significant application in optical lenses. Research indicates that high‐entropy glasses, enriched with high dissociation energy and high‐field strength components, enhance the mechanical properties of glass. In this study, we tailored high‐entropy glasses to achieve superior optical and mechanical attributes by optimizing heavy metal oxide components and adjusting the Al2O3 content. The resultant 10RE2O3‐10Gd2O3‐32Al2O3‐36Ta2O5‐12ZrO2 (RE = La, Tm, Lu) glass demonstrates a refractive index of 2.028, a Young's modulus of 186.2 GPa, and a Vickers hardness of 9.18 GPa. The glass was colorless and widely transparent, in the visible‐to‐infrared region from 312.5 to 6674 nm, and the maximum transmittance reach up to 79.3%. These results indicate that the 10RE2O3‐10Gd2O3‐32Al2O3‐36Ta2O5‐12ZrO2 glass would be useful for camera and detector lenses.