David William Morgan

Optical properties of stretched CuClBr-containing glasses

Glasses containing a post-thermally developed CuClBr microcrystalline phase were stretched under an applied stress at a temperature above the strain-point. The resulting glass was optically transparent and birefringent. The stretched glass was heated under reducing conditions to effect the reduction of the Cu-halide particles to Cu metal thereby rendering the glass polarizing. The polarizing behavior is compared to that of Ag/Ag-halide containing glasses which are made in the same manner. The polarizing behavior of the two glasses is very similar except for the wavelength region below 500 nm. The absence of a crossover of the parallel and perpendicular polarization transmittances in the Cu/Cu-halide glass suggests a visible polarizer application.