Effect of cooling rate on the crystallization and optical properties of silicate glasses containing ZnS

Abstract

Cooling rate has large effect on the structures and properties of glasses, which may change the chemical, physical, and mechanical properties of glasses, and their crystallization behaviors. In this work, effect of cooling rate on the crystallization and optical properties of glasses, which have been utilized to precipitate semiconductor nanocrystals, are investigated using sodium zinc silicate glasses as typical example. Cooling rate strongly affects the structural connectivity of the glasses, and as a result, Na8Al4Si4O18 nanocrystals are formed as predominant crystalline phases in glasses with larger cooling rate, and ZnS nanocrystals are formed in glasses with smaller cooling rate. Results reported illustrate that it is important to control the cooling rate of the glass in order to modulate the crystallization and optical properties of semiconductor nanocrystals embedded in glasses.