Photoinduced strucural changes in amorphous films of antimony polyphosphate glasses

Author(s)

Fábio Simões De Vicente

• Document type: Doctoral Thesis
• Press: São Carlos.
• Institution: Universidade de São Paulo (USP). Instituto de Física de São Carlos (IFSC/BT)
• Defense date: 2004-12-16

Examining board members

Máximo Siu Li; Lucila Helena Deliesposte Cescato; Valmor Roberto Mastelaro; Sidney José Lima Ribeiro; Celso Valentim Santilli

• Advisor: Máximo Siu Li

Abstract

The aim of this work is the study of the Photoinduced Structural Changes (PSC) in films of the [Sb(PO3)3]n −Sb2O3 glassy system, as well as the production and characterization of the glassy system. The glass samples x[Sb(PO3)3]n−(100−x)Sb2O3 (5 ≤ x ≤ 40) were produced by the melt−quenehing technique of suitable quantities of the precursors Sb2O3 and [Sb(PO3)3]n, fused at 900°C in glassy carbon crucibles and verted into stainless steel moulds. Homogeneous and stable glass plates of 1.0 x 1.0 x 0.5 cm3 were obtained. The characterization of the glass system and the obtaining of parameters such as the glass forming region and characteristic temperatures were possible through DSC, X−ray Diffraction, FTIR and MAS−NMR techniques. The studied glass system possess remarkable properties such as broad transmittance window (from 0.4 to 8.0 µm), high index of refraction (n ∼ 2.0), low melting temperature (Tf∼900 °C) and low glass transition temperature (Tg∼300 °C). The films were produced by electron beam physical vapor deposition (EB−PVD) of the glasses, in a non−commercial evaporation system developed in our laboratory, where is possible to produce high quality films with thickness of up to 10 µm. The films samples presented an atypical photocontraction behavior that consists of a decrease of up to 10 % in the thickness, accompanied of photobleaching after UV irradiation using a 350.7 nm laser line. Besides the macroscopic characterization of the photocontraction effect (behavior as function of the UV laser power density and irradiation time), our attention was focused on the study of the effect at structural level using techniques such as X−ray diffraction, XANES, FTIR, EPR, RBS and Optical Holography. In addition to the wide characterization we shown in this work the possibilities of application of this material for optical storage and holography, diffraction gratings, micro-lens array. (AU)