Robust extruded tungsten tellurite glass fiber with excellent mechanical properties for infrared applications

Robust tungsten tellurite (70TZLW) glass fiber consisting of 70TeO(2)-16ZnO-4La(2)O(3)-10WO(3) core and 70TeO(2)16ZnO-5.5La(2)O(3)-8.5WO(3) cladding (in mol.%) was prepared by extrusion method. Due to the adding of La2O3 and WO3, 70TZLW glass exhibits higher glass transition temperature (385-395 C) and thermal stability (>145 C) than those of TeO2-ZnO-Na2O glasses, which is beneficial to the drawing of optical fiber. In addition, the mean optical losses of the bare wires drawn by the core and cladding glass preform are about 1.19 dB/m and 1.16 dB/ m, while that is about 1.04 dB/m for the fiber drawn from the accordingly extruded preform at the wavelength of 1310 nm. Moreover, the average mechanical bending strength of the fiber reaches to about 570 MPa with a Weibull slope of 67.4. These results show the improvement in work ability and the greater practical potential of the 70TZLW extruded fiber compared to TeO2-ZnO-Na2O fibers for infrared application.