An experimental study of the effect of AgI on the optical and electrical properties of conductive glasses in the system AgI-AgPO3-WO3

Abstract This study describes the preparation and characterization of AgI-AgPO3-WO3 glasses displaying unique optical and electrical properties for applications where simultaneous optical and electrical transmissions are required, especially in the field of electrophysiology. Glass samples were produced following the composition laws (45-x)AgI-(50 + x)AgPO3-5WO3 and (45-x)AgI-(45 + x)AgPO3-10WO3 with x = 0–45 mol%. Their features can be precisely tailored by adjusting the concentration of silver iodide. The determination of the vitreous domain within the AgI-AgPO3-WO3 pseudo-ternary diagram showed the main role played by AgPO3 and WO3 as glass-former. Raman spectroscopy has been performed to understand how AgI is incorporated into the phosphate glassy network which relies on chains of Q2 tetrahedral units. The measured short cut-off wavelength increases from 418 nm up to 480 nm whereas the refractive index linearly increases from 1.70 up to 2.05 by increasing the AgI concentration from 0 to 45 mol%. The electrical conductivity of the glasses has been measured between 25 and 100 °C at 1 MHz AC frequency with values ranging from 10− 5 S·cm− 1 up to 10− 2 S·cm− 1 in accordance with the increasing AgI content. Taken together, the results presented in this study make these glassy materials promising candidate in the field of multifunctional optical fibers for electrophysiology applications.