Investigations Regarding the Addition of ZnO and LiO-TiO to Phosphate-Tellurite Glasses: Structural, Chemical, and Mechanical Properties.

Phosphate and tellurite glasses can be used in optics, optoelectronics, magneto-optics, and nuclear and medical fields. Two series of phosphate-tellurite glasses, (50-)ZnO-10AlO-40PO-TeO and (40-)LiO-10AlO-5TiO-45PO-TeO ( = 5, 10), were synthesized by a non-conventional wet-route, and the mechanical properties as key performance measures for their application in optoelectronics were investigated. X-ray Diffraction (XRD) measurements revealed the vitreous nature of the investigated materials. Instrumented indentation tests allowed the calculation of hardness () and Young's modulus () using the Oliver and Pharr model. The influence of increasing the TeO content, as well as the substitution of ZnO by LiO-TiO, on the variation of hardness, Young's modulus, penetration depth (), and fracture toughness () was evaluated in both series. As a general trend, there is a decrease in the hardness and Young's modulus with increasing penetration depth. The addition of LiO and TiO instead of ZnO leads to improved hardness and elastic modulus values. Regarding the / ratio, it was found that the samples with lower TeO content should be significantly more crack-resistant compared to the higher TeO content samples. The / ratio, being lower than 0.01, revealed a poor resistance of these glasses to plastic deformation. At the same time, a decrease of the fracture toughness with increasing TeO content was noticed for each glass series. Based on dilatometry measurements, the thermal expansion coefficient as well as the characteristic temperatures of the glasses were measured. Field Emission Scanning Electron Microscopy-Energy Dispersive X-ray analysis (FESEM-EDX) revealed a uniform distribution of the elements in the bulk samples. The mechanical properties of these vitreous materials are important in relation to their application as magneto-optical Faraday rotators in laser cavities.