Optical Properties of Diatomic Glasses

The ability of elements to form glasses, the leading part played by the elements of Group VI (O, S, Se, and Te), and the possible influence of the elements of Group VII (F, Cl, Br, and I) are discussed. New glasses suggested by previous work were melted and the refractive index ( n ) and coefficient of dispersion ( v ) of some of them were measured. Inspection of the n, v plots of oxide, sulfide, selenide, and telluride glasses shows that the area corresponding to them extends toward high values of refractive index ( n _max= 5.3) and low values of dispersion coefficient ( v _min=4).