Thermo-optical properties measurements in chalcogenide glasses using thermal relaxation and thermal lens methods

Abstract In this work we determine the thermo-optical properties of two chalcogenide glasses (in mol%): 65 Ga 2 S 3 ; 30 La 2 S 3 ; 5 La 2 O 3 (Ga:La:S) and 72.5 Ga 2 S 3 ; 27.5 La 2 O 3 (Ga:La:S:O). The thermal relaxation calorimetry and the thermal lens technique were combined so that the samples specific heat, thermal diffusivity, thermal conductivity, and the temperature coefficient of the optical path length change could be measured. Our results indicate that changes in thermal diffusivity (∼2.7 × 10 −3 cm 2 /s) and conductivity (∼4.8 × 10 −3 W/K cm) observed when La 2 O 3 is added in the glass compounds are less than the error in the data.