In-situ measurement of reversible photodarkening in ion-conducting chalcohalide glass.

We report the kinetics of below band-gap light induced photodarkening in (80-x)GeS(2)-20Ga(2)S(3)-xAgI (x = 0 and 20 mol %) bulk chalcogenide glasses by measuring the time evolution of transmission spectra at every 10 milliseconds. The results prove clearly the enhancement of photosensivity upon doping of AgI compound in glasses. It is interesting to find that PD observed in AgI-doped glass totally disappears two hours later after the laser exposing even at room temperature. In significant contrast to 80GeS(2)-20Ga(2)S(3) glass that the metastable part of PD remains for a long time. We expect such a fast auto-recovery property in AgI-doped glass can be utilized for optical signal processing.