Study on novel high refractive index La2O3-Lu2O3-TiO2 glasses prepared by aerodynamic levitation method

Abstract

A new La2O3-Lu2O3-TiO2 glass with high refractive index was successfully prepared by containerless processing method. Although this glass without network formers performs low glass forming ability, aerodynamic levitation has been introduced to obtain the bulk glass spheres with a diameter of ∼3.5 mm. The glass shows good mechanical properties with the Vickers hardness of 8.26 GPa and fracture toughness of 1.09 MPa·m1/2. The density is up to 5.51 g/cm3, which is favorable to obtain high refractive index. The glass performs good thermal stability with the glass transition temperature as high as 812 °C. nd value of refractive index is as high as 2.1202. And Abbe number is 28.2. This indicates that the glass shows excellent optical properties, which can satisfy commercial requirements. Moreover, new glass also overcomes the shortage of deep color of conventional high refractive heavy metal oxide glasses. The transmittance of the glass is near to 75% in the visible and near infrared range.