A novel transparent amorphous LaGaO3-Nb2O5 sphere with high refractive indices fabricated by containerless solidification

• Published in: Materials research express Vol. 6; no. 1
• Main Authors: Li, Ying, Zhang, Xiaoyan, Qi, Xiwei, Zhang, Min, Gu, Yaohang, Zhu, Hongen
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: IOP Publishing 01.01.2019
• Subjects: amorphous (1; containerless solidification; high refractive indices; LaGaO; spheres; transparent
• ISSN: 2053-1591
• DOI: 10.1088/2053-1591/aae919

A series of novel transparent and amorphous spheres (1-x)LaGaO3-xNb2O5 (x = 0, 0.1, 0.2, 0.3, 0.4, 0.5, 0.6, 0.625, 0.650, 0.675) with high refractive indices were successfully synthesized through containerless solidification. In the range of 0 ≤ x ≤ 0.675, transparent samples diametered about 2-4 mm were produced. The glass transition temperature Tg and the crystal onset temperature Tx first rose and then reduced with rising x. The difference between Tg and Tx was ΔT = Tx - Tg. The ΔT curve exhibited two peaks at x = 0.2 and x = 0.6, with the maximum ΔT values of approximately 107 °C and 108 °C respectively. The refractive indices of the fabricated amorphous materials ranged from 2.00 to 2.45 with increasing x from 0.1 to 0.675 in the visible light range. The transmittances ranged from 82% to 71% with increasing x from 0 to 0.5 in the visible light range. Raman scattering spectra showed that the maximum phonon energy increased from 782 cm−1 to 815 cm−1 with rising x from 0 to 0.5. The as-prepared amorphous materials pave the way for developing novel optical components.