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Infrared gradient refractive index (GRIN) lenses have great application value and potential in multispectral imaging systems. This study reports various chalcogenide axial GRIN glasses prepared using the hot‐pressing diffusion method. It is worth noting that the S4–S60 GRIN sample has a difference in refractive index (RI) Δn of greater than 0.3 and a diffusion depth of about 5 mm, which is the deepest diffusion depth reported in chalcogenide glass to date. In addition, the linear portion in the profile of the GRIN sample has a RI difference of 0.15 and a thickness of 1.2 mm. The effects of the temperature, concentration difference, and diffusion time on the sample diffusion process are discussed. The dispersion properties of the GRIN samples were further calculated, providing a new option for correcting chromatic aberrations in optical systems. In addition, a method for the indirect nondestructive characterization of sample RI using the Raman intensity ratio is proposed, and the reliability of the method is verified by practical experiments, which is convenient for the subsequent measurement of the GRIN profile. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We have prepared an ultra‐large core, high numerical aperture (NA) chalcogenide (ChG) step‐index fiber (SIF) with a mode area of >43 600 μm2 at the wavelength of 5.5 μm by an improved extrusion method. The fiber based on two ChG glasses with similar softening temperature has a core diameter of 339.0 μm and ultra‐thin cladding. The fiber exhibits a minimum loss of 1.75 dB/m at 9.74 μm and an optical loss of <5.0 dB/m from 5.3 to 10.8 μm. Broadband supercontinuum (SC) covering from 1.2 μm to 13.7 μm has been generated in a 17‐cm‐long ultra‐large mode area fiber with large core and high NA. All these show that, the fiber possesses the potential for high‐power infrared laser transmission. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

By conventional melt‐quenching techniques, a series of Dy3+‐doped (0.1 to 1.0 wt%) Ga5Ge20Sb15S60 bulk glasses were fabricated and their potential for developing mid‐infrared fiber laser beyond 4 μm were evaluated, in which the optimal Dy3+ doping concentration was found to be 0.3 wt% and the largest laser quality factor value (σe × τmea = 2.62 × 10−23 cm2 s) among all of the Dy3+‐doped chalcogenide glass was obtained. On this basis, through using the chemical purification methods with chlorine gas combined with the dynamic distillation process, the high‐purity GGSS glasses with low O–H and S–H absorptions were successfully fabricated, which was confirmed by the optimized mid‐infrared linear transmittance and improved fluorescent lifetimes of Dy3+: 6H13/2, 6H11/2 levels. Furthermore, for the first time to the best of our knowledge, the Dy3+‐doped, single‐mode, and double‐cladding chalcogenide fibers with the core/cladding ratios of 125:60:11 and 125:66:11.5 were achieved by a multistage rod‐in‐tube fiber drawing process and extrusion methods, respectively. The GeS2‐based fiber exhibits excellent transmission performance at 1.0‐5.0 μm: 3.0 dB/m at 2.9 μm (O–H), 2.4 dB/m at 4.1 μm (S–H). Combining the advantages of high‐purity, high doping concentration and single‐mode double‐cladding structure, the optimized active fiber should be an ideal efficient and low‐threshold medium toward mid‐infrared fiber laser beyond 4 μm. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ge26.7Ga8S65.3 (GGS) and 0.1% Au‐doped Ge26.7Ga8S65.3 (GGS‐Au) glasses were prepared and annealed at a temperature that is 20 K higher than their respective glass transition temperature in order to create chalcogenide glass‐ceramics. X‐ray diffraction results showed that, thermal annealing can induce large amount of the crystal growth in the pure glass but this can be significantly suppressed by Au doping in the glass, which is in agreement with the previous results. We further employed various calorimetric methods, together with Mauro‐Yue‐Ellison‐Gupta‐Allan viscosity model, to investigate their crystallization kinetics. The crystal growth rate at annealing temperature of 723 K was quantitatively deduced to be 2.5 × 10−8 μm/s in Au‐doped GGS, which is about 20 times slower than that in the pure GGS with a growth rate of 4.7 × 10−7 μm/s. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cr2+‐doped II‐VI crystals have witnessed an excellent gain media for continuously tunable and femtosecond‐pulsed lasers. Despite this, major challenges persist toward realizing ultrabroad emission bandwidth and efficient Cr2+‐doped fiber due to the valence diversity of Cr, especially in chalcogenide glasses. Here, we propose to prepare Cr2+:ZnSe/As2S3‐xSex composite glasses by Hot Uniaxial Pressing (HUP), a method that sinters uniformly mixed crystal and glass powders into geometrically designed composite chalcogenide glasses. The densification of the composite glasses reached 99.88%, indicating that a few or none pores remain. Our research shows that Cr2+:ZnSe crystals have good performance in chalcogenide glasses, and the composite glasses have the potential to be made into mid‐infrared–doped fibers. It was demonstrated by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and X‐ray diffraction (XRD) that the composite glasses have a uniform Cr2+:ZnSe distribution and no crystal disintegration. The transmittance of the composite glasses was significantly improved by tailoring the refraction index. The mid‐infrared (MIR) fluorescence and decay of the glasses were measured. The lattice constant was measured, calculated, and discussed to reveal the influence of sintering process on lifetime. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]