Chapter 16: Applications of Germanate Glasses Check Access

Applications of glasses containing GeO₂ are restricted to situations where the high cost of GeO₂ is of little consequence. Current applications include doping the core of optical fibers to increase the refractive index, improving the properties of fiber lasers, and the formation of Bragg gratings in optical fibers. Potential optical applications include the formation of Faraday rotator devices, fibers with high GeO₂ concentrations in the core for use as Raman lasers and fibers for transmission in the mid-IR region of the spectrum, and formation of hollow core optical fibers. Non-optical applications include radiation shielding glasses and at either dopant levels for improving current glasses for glass–glass, glass–metal, or glass–ceramic sealing, or high GeO₂ levels for the development of high temperature sealing glasses based on rare earth aluminogermanate glasses.