Glass, optical applications losses

Krause J. T., Kurkjian C. R., Pinnow D. A., and Sigety E. A., Low acoustic loss chalcogenide glasses—a new category of materials for acoustic and acoustic-optic applications, App7. Phys. Lett, 17,367-369 (1970). 

One of the most commonly used measures of durability, i.e. the loss of sodium from the glass, is important to the pharmaceutical and chemical industries, but other changes such as loss of surface quality, are of equal importance for optical and window glasses. The properties of a wide range of technical glasses are well catalogued but the data are often inadequate when considering a particular application and where possible nonstandard whole article tests are advisable. 

Close to silica fibres are silicate fibres drawn from optical glasses. Silicate fibres are typically applicable in the visible spectral region. Their optical losses in the visible region usually reach much higher values than silica fibres - at least 102dB/km. On the other hand, the refractive index can be tailored in a large interval (from 1.5 for the BK-class to 1.95 for the... 

---