Structure and Properties of Ga2O3Based Glasses

Glass formation, structure of glass and some basic and topical properties have been reviewed for gallium oxide based systems which are free from conventional glass-forming oxides. Glass-forming tendency is unexpectedly large for Ga2O3 based systems. In binary and ternary systems, it is especially large for heavier metal oxides. Diffraction and spectroscopic studies indicate that all or most of Ga3+ ions are four-coordinated, not six-coordinated, which confirms Zachariasen's rule for glass formation. Optical nonlinearity for PbO-GaO1.5 glasses is larger than that of corresponding silicate glasses of the PbO-SiO2 system. Ga2O3-based mixed alkali oxide glasses show a marked mixed alkali effect in electrical conductivity similar to that in alkali silicate glasses.